


Romance Relationship of Nebula and Tony Stark

by FanfictionReader2015AD



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe of Marvel Cinematic Universe, F/M, Gen, Nebula and Tony Stark Dating in Secretly, Nebula's Sad Backstory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-05
Updated: 2020-07-07
Packaged: 2021-02-24 15:48:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 20
Words: 41,903
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21680449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FanfictionReader2015AD/pseuds/FanfictionReader2015AD
Summary: "Seems like there's more effective ways," Tony mused."On top of that he's a lousy father and definitely abused you while you were with him." She didn't say anything but Tony exaggerated his nod and Nebula nodded."How do you know that?" Tony's friend asked frustrated.Tony didn't bother pointing out that Rhodey was much more likely to contract something at a New Year's party kissing some stranger at midnight.Because Tony didn't care what Rhodey was doing, as long as he wasn't interrupting Tony's time with Nebula."We've practiced plenty of times, we know how to kiss Tony," she told him, clearly confused.Tony didn't want to, he didn't want the year to end, he finally felt like he had something to celebrate, and he didn't want to chance the new year messing it up.5 4 3 2 1 Happy New Year.
Relationships: Gamora/Nebula (Marvel), James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark, James "Rhodey" Rhodes/Tony Stark, Nebula & Tony Stark, Nebula/Pepper Potts/Tony Stark/James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Nebula/Thanos (Marvel), Nebula/Tony Stark, Pepper Potts & Tony Stark, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark
Comments: 23
Kudos: 47





	1. Credits and Characters

Writer: sereneingram  
Genre: Fantasy, Action, Horror (Nebula's Backstory), Romance 

**Story**  
Prologue (Published)  
Chapter 1 (Published)  
Chapter 2 (Published)  
Chapter 3 (Published)  
Chapter 4 (Published)  
Chapter 5 (Published)  
Chapter 6 (Published)  
Chapter 7 (Published)  
Chapter 8: Infinity War Part 1 (Published)  
Chapter 8: Infinity War Part 2 (Published)  
Chapter 8: Infinity War Part 3 (Published)  
Chapter 9 aka Final Chapter/ Good Outcome for Good Ending (Published)  
Chapter 9 aka Final Chapter / Bad Outcome for Bad Ending (Published)  
Good Ending (Published)  
Bad Ending (Published)

 **Characters (Marvel Cinematic Universe)**  
Anthony Edward "Tony" Stark aka Iron Man (Human) / Age: 38 Year Old  
Nebula aka Daughter of Thanos (Luphomoid) / Age: ? (My bet Age is 24 Year Old)  
Shield Agent Clinton Francis "Clint" Barton aka Hawkeye (Human) / Age: 28 Year Old  
Shield Agent Natalia Alianovna "Natasha" Romanoff aka Black Widow (Human) / Age: 28 Year Old  
Shield Director Nick Fury (Human) / Age: 47 Year Old  
Shield Agent Maria Hill (Human) / Age: 28 Year Old  
Virginia "Pepper" Potts (Human) / Age: 38 Year Old  
Colonel James Rupert "Rhodey" Rhodes aka War Machine (Human) / Age: 38 Year Old  
Ebony Maw aka Son of Thanos (?) / Age: ? (My bet Age is 55 Year Old)  
Cull Obsidian aka Son of Thanos (?) / Age: ? (My bet Age is 24 Year Old)  
Proxima Midnight aka Daughter of Thanos (?) / Age: ? (My bet Age is 24 Year Old)  
Corvus Glaive aka Son of Thanos (?) / Age: ? (My bet Age is 24 Year Old)  
Gamora aka Daughter of Thanos (Zehoberei) / Age: ? (My bet Age is 24 Year Old)  
Thanos aka Mad Titan (Titan) / Age: ? (My bet Age is 1500+ Year Old)


	2. Prologue

“No, no, no,” the frantic muttering permeated the tense atmosphere inside the pod. Nebula was flipping the switches as fast as she could. She pulled back on the controls, trying to change her directory. But the ship had already been caught in an atmosphere too strong to escape. 

She tried employing the reverse thrusters but it was no use.

“Of all the hellish places to land, Planet Earth” she grunted dashing from the controls. “It just had to be the planet that father’s fixated on.” Of course, the ship’s coordinates had already been inputted. And when she had decided to run for her life, she had gotten out as fast as she could. She hadn’t even thought to change the destination. She figured she’d end up in some system in the middle of nowhere and then just navigate out. 

She cried out as the ship lurched, entering the atmosphere completely and it flung her up against one of the walls. She hit her head and the world went completely black for a moment before she snapped her eyes open and tried to refocus. 

Her head was swimming, one of her arms had already been short-circuiting when she fled to the pod she was in now. Her father’s face flashed in her mind. Her vision swam and she fell to the floor of the ship. The controls. She had to get to the controls. 

“I’m not saying that sex is the only way to start a relationship I’m saying it’s the best way,” Tony shrugged. He strutted over towards his bar and grabbed another drink for himself. 

“Anyone else needs a refill?” he offered.

“I’ll take one,” Rhodey finished his off quickly and held his glass out. 

“Just set it down,” Tony said. “Pepper can get all the glasses later.”

“Oh sure,” Pepper sipped her own drink. “Why not.”

“Still my assistant,” Tony said.

“Yes, yes, I remember,” she nodded. “Since you’re up why don’t you get me another one,” she drained his glass quickly.

“Hey, hey, easy now,” Happy said looking at her.

“It’s alright Happy you’re the driver. If anything you’re the one who would need to transport him. I just have to make sure he doesn’t make any stupid decisions when he goes out.”

“Half the time he doesn’t even drive anywhere anymore, he just flies around in that death suit,” Happy rolled his eyes.

“It’s more fun than you are,” Tony quipped back walking over with refills for Pepper and Rhodey before going back to grab his drink. 

“Hardy, har,” Happy nursed his drink slower. Not allowing his boss’s proving to create a drinking problem for him. 

“Well Tony, what are your plans now anyway?”

“What, you mean now that I’m a superhero? Same as always. Run my company, be the best, develop better ways. I guess I have to find a new business partner, you know since my last one was kind of a dud.” 

The group chuckled at the mention of him.

“Yes, well that’s what pissing off powerful people will get you,” Pepper pursed her lips and then shook her head. 

“Ya, ya, a tale of caution and all that,” Tony shrugged. “Well I’m a powerful person too, now I have armor. I should go around, make a difference,” he nodded to himself seeming satisfied. 

“Don’t go getting yourself into any messes that I’m going to have to pick up,” Pepper warned him.

“That’s your job, Potts. You keep my reputation shiny.”

“You aren’t supposed to make it overly difficult Tony.”

“I’m not. I’m saving people. I’m helping,” he smirked.

“You’re being purposefully difficult,” she leveled him with a glare. 

“Either way, hey Rhodey where are you going?”

“I’m going to stay in one of your many guest rooms Tony,” Rhodey set his half-empty glass on the glass table in front of him. “You two give me a headache. And some of us are on call tomorrow,” he checked his pager and winced. “God in three hours no less. Pray for a slow day.”

“I can do it for you if someone calls,” Tony grinned. “I’m perfectly capable. Why call in a soldier when you can have a superhero?”

“Ya thanks Tony, that sounds great,” he nodded. “I’ll tell my superiors.” 

“Good, good,” Tony nodded as Rhodey left. 

Tony, Happy and Pepper stayed up later, talking about the next phase of Tony Stark as Iron Man. What changes would have to be made, did different protocols need to be put into place. What about the safety of Pepper and Happy. There were lots of things to consider. 

“Well team I think we’ve done some good work,” Tony looked over his notes. “We should probably head to bed,” he stretched.

“Is that where you’re going?” Pepper asked.

“I’ll probably head to the lab for a bit,” he said, cracking his neck.

“You need sleep Tony,” she urged him. “Go to bed, the lab can wait until tomorrow.”

“I’m sure it could,” Tony stood up. “But I don’t want to. And I have this huge urge for instant gratification.” He laughed and Happy shook his head.

“It’s useless to fight him on this, we both know that Pepper,” he said.

“He’s going to end up really hurting himself if he doesn’t get enough sleep,” she protested.

“I’m sure you’re right, but that’s not our decision to make.”

“Ya Potts, anyways if you’re so worried then you can,” he was interrupted as the whole house shook. Tony was knocked forward and had to steady himself on the table. Pepper wobbled but grabbed the arm of the chair beside her. Happy fell onto his butt on the floor.

“What the hell was that?” Pepper asked. They all immediately looked out the large whole room window that faced the courtyard. There were blue flecks and flames still lingering in the air. 

Just as Tony took a step forwards and aftershock ripped through the home. The lights overhead shook and Tony pitched forwards, his face slamming into the table. He cursed audibly. 

Pepper, who had maintained her balance the first time, fell into the chair. The shock knocked her off balance though and after hitting the chair she plummeted to the floor, landing with a grunt on her butt. 

“I’ll go get my suit!” Tony said. He raced away. 

“Tony,” Pepper called after him. “Happy come on,” she cried and raced after their boss. Happy pushed himself up and then ran after them both.

“You guys don’t make my job easy,” he complained. 

Tony was already out the front door and in his armor by the time Happy reached the main level. 

“Tony,” Pepper called out. She hesitated in the open front door for only a moment. With none of the protection, her boss had she ran outside, her feet bare since it had been an easy night in. 

The grass was moist with midnight dew and her toes sunk into the soil. She felt each breath of freezing air as it filled her lungs and chilled her body. She bit her lip, she felt like shaking. The fear and adrenaline were surging through her but she had gotten this job to look after this idiot of a man, and she had been great at it for years. She wasn’t going to let some fear tarnish what she thought of herself. She was brave and she could do this. 

She came to a stop as she rounded the corner of the house, she nearly tripped over herself in her haste to stop on a dime. 

“What the hell?” she whispered and stared at the unbelievable sight in front of her. Her brain couldn’t process what she was seeing. It tried to take in details but it wasn’t actually processing anything.

“Stay behind me Pepper,” Tony said fiercely as he flew over and landed in front of her. He put his arm out and she did, in fact, move farther behind him. 

“Tony, that can’t be,” she shook her head, her eyebrows knitted together and then she took another peek. In front of her and her boss was a smoking heap of machinery. It was embedded deeply into his front lawn. The grass was thrown about, some of it even charred. She could see some flame retardant on the lawn too and assumed he must have put out a few fires. The whole… the thing seemed to glow blue. Although a lot of it was metal.

The word still wouldn’t quite come. She shook her head. This wasn’t real, it couldn’t be real. The machine in front of her looked like nothing she’d ever seen. And after working for Stark Inc for so long she had seen a lot of machines. She might not know how to make them but she knew what most things looked like at least. She doubted even her highly talented boss could make the thing laying in front of them. 

There must have been a fan somewhere that was starting to slow down because a low whir could be heard. 

“What is it?” she finally had to ask.

“Well it seems like a machine of some sort,” she was glad that even he seemed to hesitate to say it. She didn’t know what she would do if he could just say the word. Her brain was still trying to catch up, still trying to produce a logical explanation. 

“Tony,” she whispered. 

“Ya Potts?”

“That couldn’t be could it?”

“Holy shit,” Happy rounded the corner. “Is that a spaceship?”

“Uh, ya, Happy I think that it is.” Tony took a few steps towards the ship. There were obvious damage parts and bits laid about, some live wires were even jumping around. “Stay back you two,” he instructed. “It’s a pretty bad crash site.”

“What could this be Tony?”

“A spaceship, now I just need to find out who the pilot is.”

“Well whoever they are, they didn’t do a great job of landing,” Happy critiqued. 

“I noticed that too,” Tony said. “Oh, oh no, they landed on the roses Potts, make a note.” Pepper rolled her eyes. As Tony approached he could see a human, or humanoid lying in the wreckage. It was a girl, but she was blue. 


	3. Chapter 1

Tony hurried over to the wreckage.

“Tony!” Pepper yelled after him. “What are you doing! You don’t know anything about that Alien,” she said desperately after him.

“It doesn’t matter,” Tony said. “Someone is hurt in there, they need help,” he said determinedly. 

“But, Tony,” she watched helplessly as he didn’t stop. He had never been good at listening. When he reached the pod he scanned it with his suit, looking for any openings, or release buttons. 

Instead, when it snapped open and the blue woman lunged out at him, he was caught off guard. He shot back, hands up. 

“Hey,” he tried to calm her. “Hey, hey, hey, don’t worry, we’re friendly. A little weird looking sure, but friendly.” 

“Where, this is Terra right?”

“Oh! You speak English, that’s great, really awesome news, then we can talk. Hello,” he stepped closer but she growled and staggered back, putting her hands up in fists.

“Ok, no touching then, got it.” He stepped back, putting his hands up in surrender. 

She looked him up and down. “I don’t know what English is,” she tripped over the pronunciation. “I’m had Chip programmed with universal translation software, I can speak anything. Who are you?” she asked.

“I’m Iron Man, Tony Stark,” he corrected. “I’m Tony Stark, that’s my name. But I’m also a superhero, I protect the Earth, this planet, I think you called it Terra. And when people are referring to me as a superhero, I’m Iron Man.” 

“A superhero?” she asked confused.

“Yes, I help people. And I keep people safe. You look like you could use some help,” he said gently. 

“You can’t help me,” she said, swaying on her feet. 

“I bet I could, at least a little. How about a warm bed to sleep in? Some food? Protection from the government found out you landed an alien ship. Any of those things sound helpful?” he offered. 

“I,” she swayed again. 

“I’m going to catch you,” he told her. And she didn’t protest as she fell into his arms, unconscious and badly wounded. 

“Well, Potts, go prepare a room.” 

The next week was spent finding a doctor that Pepper vetted thoroughly to come and take care of a top-secret patient. He was paid handsomely and in cash, and medical equipment he needed was paid for and shipped to the Stark mansion. 

While Pepper was helping to get the mysterious visitor descent health care Tony was busy constructing a new underground level of his mansion. He was omitting it from his blueprints and official home layout. Instead, it would only be known to himself, Pepper and of course, the blue alien herself. 

Tony had also installed some new software into J.A.R.V.I.S. 

“Hey Potts,” Tony walked into the room the alien was still sleeping in.

“Hello Mr. Stark,” she nodded. 

“I’m going to get our blue friend down to the new non-existent basement level,” he had one of the robots come over.

“Alright, I’ll have the rest of her belongings moved down there soon.”

“Perfect,” Tony nodded. “And the ship?”

“Already dismantled and disposed of,” Pepper confirmed.

“Thanks, Potts.” 

The robots lifted the alien up a bit and then Tony led them to the newly disguised elevator. They walked inside and he hit the down button. When the elevator dinged and then opened he stepped out into her room. It was as nice as he could manage. There were small upper windows that let some natural light in. It had a vanity, large walk-in closet, shower, bath, and of course a soft and comfortable bed. 

He had the robot set her down and pulled the covers up. He turned and went back to the elevator.

“Where am I?”

“Woah, hey, did you just talk?” he turned around quickly to look at her.

“You’re that human from before,” she looked at him. “Where are you holding me, hostage,” her arm expanded and a laser popped up from her wrist.

“That’s fascinating,” he noted. “Wait, no, you’re not a hostage. You’re a guest. I made this room for you. I have plans to talk with the US Government soon so that you’ll be able to move around more freely. But for now, since our planet isn’t used to people like you, it’ll be safer for you to stay here,” he smiled a bit.

She lowered her arm. “You said your name was Tony Stark, is that right?” she asked.

“Ya it is, can I sit?” he gestured to the bed.

“Yes, you may,” she pulled her knees up to herself and wrapped her arms around them. 

“So, what’s your name?” he asked.

“Nebula,” she told him.

“That’s a great name Nebula, really stellar, very A+.” She looked at him confused. “Um, well anyways, where did you come from?”

“My father’s ship,” Nebula told him.

“I see,” he nodded. “Well, is he looking for you then?”

“No, my father is an abusive man. He’s hunting down a way to destroy your planet and all planets, to cleanse all of the galaxy. It is his ultimate mission, and he won’t stop until he achieves his goal.”

Tony nodded skeptically. “You do not have to believe me,” Nebula said softly.

“No, no, I do, definitely do. It just kinda sucks for me then. You know, because then some random alien wants me dead for some reason.”

“Overpopulation,” Nebula said.

“Come again?”

“There are too many people. My father, Thanos, came from Planet Titan where there were too many people, and they used up everything that their planet had to offer. And then the planet died, everyone perished without enough to eat or drink, without clean air to breathe. He doesn’t want to see that happen to other planets.”

“Seems like there are more effective ways,” Tony mused. 

“Perhaps, but there is no changing his mind,” Nebula said. “He is a very stubborn man.” 

“Sounds like you know first hand.” She didn’t say anything. “Your tech is pretty cool Nebula, where’d you get it?”

“Every time I lost a battle to my Step Sister Gamora, he would cut another piece of me off, and replace it with something more efficient.” 

Tony was silent for a moment. “That sounds terrible,” he said finally. “This guy sounds like a real ass, why is he your father again?”

“He took me in when I was dying. He showed up on Luphomoid when I was eight and starving. It was a high price to pay, he massacred half of my planet, my parents and siblings were killed. But, he gave me a home and safety.”

“He took you apart and broke you,” Tony said firmly. “That’s not someone loving. Stay here, eat with us, watch movies with us, laugh with us. We’ll show you about the family.” Tony nodded. “Here’s your first lesson, a family makes sure that family gets a good night’s sleep and that they get the help they need to get healthy. So go ahead, lay down. Close your eyes, and I’ll turn out the lights.” He dimmed the lights on the wall by the elevator. 

“I’ll come to see you at dawn tomorrow to show you how to use the elevator. The bathroom is through the door on the right, a closet is left, don’t get those mixed up. Good night Nebula,” he got into the elevator quietly and let it take him away. 

“Sir,” J.A.R.V.I.S. woke him the next day. Tony stretched and rubbed his eyes.

“What’s up Jarv?”

“The new guest is up in her room. She seems a bit restless.”

“Alright, thank you,” he got up, brushed his teeth quickly and then headed downstairs. The elevator's buttons to the basement were only accessible if you lifted one of the panels. Otherwise, J.A.R.V.I.S. had to grant you access himself. 

“Good morning sunshine,” Tony said as the elevator opened. She looked over at him, she was sitting on her bed tapping her leg.

“You’ve arrived,” she confirmed.

“Yes I did, thanks for waiting so eagerly. Let’s talk about you staying here Nebula,” she nodded. 

“So, right now I know there’s an angry alien who wants to find all 6 Infinity Stones to destroy my planet and Galaxy because he thinks there are too many kids, is that right?” She nodded. “On top of that, he’s a lousy father and definitely abused you while you were with him.” She didn’t say anything but Tony exaggerated his nod and Nebula nodded. “Ok good, now, since he was a crummy father, I’m guessing he didn’t celebrate your birthday ever,” Tony sat down on the end of her bed again.

“A birthday?” she asked. “What is a birthday?”

“A birthday is when you celebrate the day you were born,” he smiled. “Like coming into the world for the first time.”

“Oh, then that was yesterday for me. What day was yesterday?”

Tony smiled brightly. “It was yesterday. Alright, J.A.R.V.I.S. mark November 2nd as Nebula’s birthday.” She smiled brightly back at him. 

“What is the point of this again?” Nebula asked Tony when he came up behind her to tie the back of her dress.

“You have to do the zipper to babe,” he said kissing the back of her neck gently. He pulled the zipper up and then tied the burgundy ribbon around her light tan dress. 

“You look, stunning,” he kissed her cheek.

“Thank you, you don’t match,” she told him, turning to face him instead of the mirror.

“Yes, I know that. Remember, us dating, and doing this,” he kissed her. “It is a secret, just for a little while longer. I promise.”

“I thought you said it was just your friends coming?” she asked.

“It is, but some of those friends work for the government, and we don’t want any problems. I’ll talk to them soon, but not on Thanksgiving. Promise, cross my heart, before the New Year.”

“I don’t know when that is,” she walked over to her closet and got a pair of white heels. 

“J.A.R.V.I.S. will tell you,” Tony assured her. 

“Mark the calendar,” Nebula said.

“Yes ma’am,” J.A.R.V.I.S. replied. 

“See, look how good you’ve gotten with everything around here. You’re blending in more and more every day,” he kissed her. His arms were wrapped around her waist and she smiled at him.

“Tony, people on this planet are not blue, I am nothing like you.”

“You might look different, but we’re more alike than you think baby,” he kissed her and she leaned into him, happy for the positive sign of affection. 

“I am nervous to meet your friends for this holiday,” she confided. 

“Thanksgiving,” he told her. “And don’t be, my friends are stupid. You don’t have anything to be nervous about. You’ll be much more interesting than they are.”

“Are you sure?” she asked me fidgeting. 

“I guarantee it,” he smiled and twirled her around in his arms. 

“Alright,” they walked to the elevator together and it let them out in the living room of his large mansion. Of course, she had been up into the main house many times. Tony employed drones to run security over the entire airspace of his property, so he could easily do scans and then bring her up when it was clear. But it was so much better to have her upstairs when it was decorated. 

She walked around looking at everything, observing as much as she could. She was fascinated by the turkeys everywhere and smiled at the various family photos. 

“Is this your mother?” she asked at a picture he had decorated when he was much younger.

“Yes,” he smiled beaming proudly at the gorgeous woman who was holding him and smiling back.

“She’s beautiful,” Nebula said.

“Thank you, I certainly think so,” he nodded. 

The doorbell rang and he squeezed her hand one more time, stole one last kiss and then went to get it. 

Nebula was a little nervous when Tony’s friends first arrived. But she soon realized that he had in fact been entirely correct in his assumption, they weren’t all that much to worry about. His friends mostly consisted of some war general, his driver, and that live in the secretary of his that Nebula wasn’t overly fond of. But she could never quite figure out why. 

When they were sitting around the dinner table, Nebula seated right beside Tony and no one seems to take any notice, and eating was when it first came up.

“Rhodey, I’m telling you, you can’t get promoted to Area 51, not possible.”

“How do you know that?” Tony’s friend asked frustrated. “You can’t possibly know that.”

“Because if you could get promoted to Area 51, then I already would have gotten promoted.”

“What if they just figure you’re too busy?” Rhodey pointed out.

“What is Area 51?” Nebula asked. 

“Area 51 is where we keep all the aliens,” Rhodey said without thinking, then when he looked he stuttered. “I mean, like alien artifacts and Aliens and research and stuff. You know, like when Humans get abducted.”

“Abducted?”

“Taken, like from here to some other place in the galaxy. Like your dad with you,” Tony said.

“No human has ever been abducted from Planet Earth, except one. Peter Jason Quill, he’s the only terra to have left this planet, but his father was otherworldly.” 

The party started at her surprised.

“I didn’t know you knew that,” Tony piped in first.

“Yes, a very interesting fact,” Rhodey nodded. Nebula felt pleased with herself for adding to the conversation. 

Later that night she and Tony laid on the roof staring at the stars. 

“You know,” he smiled at her. “We have a Thanksgiving tradition here on earth.”

“What is it?” she asked, turning her head and looking over at him. 

“We tell each other something we’re thankful for.”

“Oh, that seems fitting. Well then, I am thankful that my rocket crash-landed on terra aka on Earth. I’m grateful that I landed on earth, and more specifically your yard. I’m realizing more and more there were a lot of other possibilities.” 

“See, you’re great at this game. I’m thankful for such an amazing opportunity to spend time with you, and I’m looking forward to more opportunities to come.”

“More?” she turned on the roof to face him.

“Oh yes, busy the next few months. November has Thanksgiving, but December has Christmas, then January has New Year’s, and then February has Valentine’s Day. I’m really looking forward to Valentine’s Day with you.”

“Why?” Nebula asked excitedly.

“Because Valentine’s Day is a day for lovers,” Tony told her. 

“I’m excited to spend that with you too then,” she said. She leaned forward on the roof and kissed him. He opened his arms and she cuddled into them, settling in to gaze up at the stars. 

The next holidays all passed in a blur. Nebula continued to grow on him. The Christmas tree was decorated with her help, she hung wreaths and lights. She helped transform the space into what she watched on TV screens, and Tony had never taken more pictures in his life. He loved watching her, capturing her image with the still life that photography brought. 

He made a game of catching her under the mistletoe too. It took her a little while to catch on but when she did she laughed and smiled. She was easing into the reality of having a better life, of not having to live in fear. 

He spoiled her, buying her hoards of things for Christmas. Her presents were nearly taller than the tree. And he relaxed by the fire, watching her open each one with a joy he hadn’t seen in a while. He sipped his hot cocoa, relaxed by the fire and watched it crackle. He basked in the normalcy of it. He was falling in love, he could feel it. Not that he was ready to admit it yet. But watching her rip the paper off of her presents and then examine them, it was endearing. 

And when New Year’s rolled around a month later he refused dozens of invitations in favor of staying home. And when Rhodey tried to come over the feigned a fever. Thankfully, the germaphobe that was Rhodey declined to come within the mile of Tony’s zip code after that information. 

Tony didn’t bother pointing out that Rhodey was much more likely to contract something at a New Year’s party kissing some stranger at midnight. Because Tony didn’t care what Rhodey was doing, as long as he wasn’t interrupting Tony’s time with Nebula. 

“Hey, come here,” Tony beckoned her over around eleven-thirty. “New Year’s tradition,” he lied. He had turned on a radio station that played love songs. He brought her into his arms and taught her how to dance, swaying gently to the melody that played over the speakers in the house. 

He hummed to himself while he held her hand to his heart, swaying back and forth, teaching her easily. The steps were all-natural, just moving where he wanted to with her in his arms. 

“I like this tradition,” she declared.

“Me too,” he whispered. 

“Do you remember what happens when the ball drops?” he asked still rocking her.

“Yes, we count down from sixty and then say Happy New Year,” she nodded. 

“But when it hits one?”

“We kiss,” she confirmed. “So that the last thing and the first thing we’re doing is kissing the person we want to spend all of our time with.”

“Right you are,” he smiled and bent down to kiss her gently.

“It’s not the countdown yet,” she told him.

“It was for practice,” he teased her. 

“We’ve practiced plenty of times, we know how to kiss Tony,” she told him, clearly confused.

“I just wanted to,” he shrugged. He twirled her slowly in his arms and she was a bit awkward with the motion. She hadn’t moved except for efficiency as she had told him, getting from one place to the next, and for combat. But dancing was just for fun, just to feel the person you love in your arms, and move with them to something you felt in your heart. 

“When Valentine’s Day comes,” he told her. “I’m going to fill this whole room with roses for you,” he kissed the side of her head holding her closer to him. 

“Sir,” J.A.R.V.I.S. interrupted. “The ball is beginning to drop.”

“Turn the channel on J.A.R.V.I.S.,” Tony told him and he did. Nebula counted down as they kept swaying. But Tony didn’t want to, he didn’t want the year to end, he finally felt like he had something to celebrate, and he didn’t want to change the new year messing it up. 

5… 4… 3… 2… 1… Happy New Year.


	4. Chapter 1 (Flashback of Nebula’s First US Thanksgiving)

“Tony,” Nebula said as they sat in on the couch on an early November morning.

“What’s up babe,” he opened his arm to her and smiled. She glanced at Rhodey, sitting on the edge and reading a newspaper. Pepper was making coffee in the kitchen and Happy was tinkering with a screw-on his glasses.

“I want to tell you what happened to my people,” she said softly.

“Oh,” Tony’s smile faded and he nodded. “Alright, we’ll listen, of course.”

“I just, I want you to understand,” she tried to express. “What Thanos is capable of.”

Tony nodded somberly as Pepper walked in.

“Come sit down Potts. Nebula is going to tell us about her home planet.” Pepper sat beside Tony and Nebula’s eye clicked a few times before projecting an image before the group. 

The Nebula’s home planet was in bad shape, the people looked miserable. But suddenly a flash of red-streaked across the view. Pepper gasped as she watched. A large Titan Thanos was slashing through everyone he saw, counting as he went. 

When Thanos reached a house he killed a woman and a man, young girls, a young girl cowering in front of him. Pepper gasped, Tony clenched the armrest of the couch. It was Nebula. 

Thanos breathed the last number and then handed the scythe to a general behind him. 

“Come with me young one,” Thanos said. “Now that your world has been saved, you shall be trained by my side, to help save other worlds.” The young Nebula sniffed and wiped her eyes. Thanos bent down and picked her up into her arms. 

“It’s ok,” Thanos told Nebula “this is for the best. On my home planet, Titan everyone died.” He showed her a hologram of a dead planet. “But look at it now,” he clicked the small box and revealed a lush green planet. “Without people to destroy them, planets will heal. Your planet will heal now too.”

Pepper let out a shaky breath, Tony felt his eyes stinging and Rhodey looked away. Happy openly cried, letting the tears sit on his cheeks. Nebula’s eye clicked back into place and she turned, not able to find the words to say, and went back to the basement. 

“Just be ready,” she whispered. 

No one said anything for a while.

“Hey Pepper,” Tony said. “Let’s make sure her Thanksgiving is really something to be thankful for, ok?” Pepper nodded.

“Nebula,” Pepper called to the blue woman who was seated stiffly at one of the chairs in the dining room.

“Yes,” Nebula stood abruptly and strutted into the kitchen where Pepper had been for the better part of two hours.

“Would you like to help me with stuffing the turkey Nebula?” Pepper asked, smiling kindly at the other woman. 

“The turkey is the main food for the dinner isn’t it?” Nebula asked, trying to remember what she had read while researching the holiday.

“Yes, that’s right. Very good Nebula, Pepper smiled. “So will you help me?”

“I must decline,” Nebula said.

“What? Why?” Pepper looked disappointed. She had been trying to think of ways to include Nebula ever since she had had to ask Tony to go out and pick up a box of instant potatoes since Happy had charred the fresh potatoes she had been making. But now she frowned because Nebula didn’t seem interested in participating. 

“I do not want to be the reason that the main dish is ruined.”

Pepper’s eyes softened as she looked at the alien girl.

“It won’t be ruined,” Pepper said. “In fact, I’m sure Tony will think it’s much better because of your help. Come over here, I’ll show you,” Pepper grinned.

Nebula walked forward nervously. “Do I need one of your front clothes?” Nebula asked gesturing to the apron Pepper was wearing.

“Sure, let me get you one,” Pepper walked to the cupboard and took out a white and red one, it didn’t quite match but aprons didn’t have to. She placed it over Nebula’s head and tied it for her. 

“Ready to go,” Pepper said. “Alright so we’re going to go to the fridge,” she pointed and walked that way, Nebula walked in front of her, a bit unsure. Pepper encouraged her and then opened the fridge door when they got there. 

“Do you see the large blue bowl?” Pepper said.

“There is something over it,” Nebula said.

“Yes, that’s cling wrap, go ahead and grab the bowl.” Nebula reached in and took it firmly in her hands. “Now walk back to the turkey,” the girl followed instructions easily. 

She returned to the turkey and set the bowl down, taking the cling wrap off on Pepper’s instructions. 

“Ok, now we’re going to lift this flap here,” Pepper held up a part of the turkey. “Take a small handful of the stuffing and go ahead and put it into this hole here.” Pepper watched as Nebula, very gently, placed the stuffing into the turkey. Pepper smiled endearingly, she could tell Nebula was worried about messing it up. 

“You’re doing great,” Pepper smiled. “Now I’m going to turn the turkey,” Nebula watched closely. “I’ll pull the legs apart and you’re going to put the stuffing in there. It’ll take a few handfuls to fill, and you want to leave enough space that you can fit two fingers inside still. Ok?” 

“Affirmative,” Nebula nodded and took a handful. She navigated between the legs of the turkey precisely and packed the stuffing in meticulously. 

“Perfect,” Pepper smiled. “Now we’re just going to tie these together,” Pepper took a small rope and tied both of the turkey’s legs. “And now that we’ve done that we’ll put it into the oven.”

“That’s it?” Nebula asked, looking at Pepper.

“Yes, you did a great job. Now the oven is going to do the rest.”

Nebula nodded and stepped back, watching as Pepper opened the oven and moved the heavy tray into the hot box. She closed it and set a timer. 

“Go ahead and wash your hands,” Pepper smiled encouragingly at her. Nebula washed her hands and then Pepper copied her. 

“I’m back,” Tony said storming into the kitchen. 

“Oh great,” Pepper said, turning to look at him. 

“I know you’re going to complain alright, so don’t, I’ll just stop you right there,” Tony was holding a finger up as Pepper tried to tell him about Nebula helping her. 

“They didn’t have the brand you liked ok. This is all they had,” he held up the store’s own brand of instant potatoes and Pepper did indeed frown. 

“Tony,” she tried to cut in.

“I know what you’re thinking, why didn’t you go to another store were you just lazy? No, I am not just lazy. I was on my way out when one of the clerks told me that all the grocery stores in the area were closing in like half an hour for the holidays and if I needed something that location was my best shot so-”

“I stuffed the turkey,” Nebula said smiling broadly at him.

He looked at her and blinked. Her cheeks turned red under his gaze. 

“I had help,” she admitted.

“Wow babe,” he walked away from Pepper, shoving the box of undesirable potatoes into her hands. “That’s incredible.” He opened the oven and inhaled deeply. “Oh wow, best turkey we’ve ever had, I can already tell. Potts, it’s a good thing she came in to help you because,” he held his fingers up in a ‘perfect’ symbol, “wow.” He winked at Pepper. 

“Yes,” Pepper agreed instantly. “I was very glad she agreed to it. I was worried at first.”

Tony walked over and put his arm around Nebula, pulling her closer into his side. “Look at you,” he kissed her head and she smiled, hugging him. 

“Do you think you might like Thanksgiving?” he asked.

“I’m not sure, your other friend has been saying a lot of curse words in the other room. He seems to not be enjoying himself,” Nebula looked worried.

Tony looked back at Pepper confused. 

“Rhodey’s playing one of your games and losing,” she informed him.

“Oh, well then nothing all that new there,” he shrugged. “Come on, let’s go and watch him lose until dinner is ready,” Tony kept his arm around her as they went into the living room. 

It wasn’t until a little over an hour later that the new Stark family was called into the dining room.

“Thanks for having us all Tony,” Happy said. 

“Ya Tony, seriously, thanks for the invite,” Rhodey smiled. It was a little strained and Tony knew that it was a sore topic for Rhodey, most of his family had passed away while he was overseas, and holidays were never an easy time for him. 

“We’re happy to have you,” Tony said grasping Nebula’s hand. Nebula looked at their intertwined hands and then smiled softly. 

“Ok, I got this thing carved, I have multiple sides to choose from, gravy which Nebula made, and of course,” Pepper produced the wishbone. 

“Oh perfect! Rhodey, get over here, you and Nebula. It’s only right,” Tony said motioning Rhodey to stand. 

“What is, the wishbone?” Nebula looked at the oddly shaped bone in Pepper’s hand.

“It’s a part of the turkey,” Tony said. “Found in the throat area, gives it a little extra strength if something hits it or anything like that.”

“Oh,” Nebula stared at it curiously as the half was placed into her hand. Rhodey gripped the other end.

“So it’s a Thanksgiving tradition that two people break the wishbone while making a wish. If you get the bigger half then your wish, supposedly, will come true,” Tony explained. 

“So Rhodey and I both just pull it?” Nebula asked.

“That’s right,” Rhodey smiled at her, feeling a little childish. “So do you have your wish ready?”

“I’ve never made a wish before,” Nebula said. “What kinds of things do people wish for?” She looked at everyone. Sympathy washed over most of their faces, except Tony.

“That’s perfect babe,” he squeezed her arm. “It’ll be your first wish, even more special,” he smiled and she smiled back. “Wish for anything you really, really want. But keep it inside your head. Think about it as you pull the wishbone ok?” 

She nodded. “Alright, I’m ready,” she confirmed. 

“Me too,” Rhodey said, while thinking as hard as he could, let her wish come true. Then they pulled and the bone snapped in half, leaving the larger portion in Nebula’s hand. 

She looked at Tony for confirmation. “You win,” he smiled.

“I am victorious,” she said jumping up a bit in excitement. The group smiled at her. 

“Ok,” he held her hand and gently pulled her back towards her seat. “Time for dinner. What do you want?”

“I want to try everything,” she said looking at him dead serious. 

“That’s a smart choice,” he nodded. “Pepper’s a great cook. Potts, two plates with everything,” he held his plate out to her.

“Tony I’m not,” she said but as Nebula copied him she didn’t have the heart to turn the blue girl down. So she sighed and took the plate from both of them, adding portions of everything, even yams, which Nebula did not end up liking. 

She cleared her plate, for the most part, only leaving the yams and two green beans which she claimed to be too full to finish. However, Tony ate them quickly, snatching up the small pieces of bacon clinging to them as well. 

After everyone had eaten and the tryptophan was in full effect most everyone moved out to the large living room sofa. Tony had gone into the kitchen to help clean up the dishes but it didn’t take him too long before he rejoined the group.

“How did you enjoy your first Thanksgiving?” Happy asked Nebula.

“It was wonderful. I did not know you humans could eat so much,” she said and everyone laughed. 

“We get carried away during the holidays for sure,” Pepper admitted. 

“Ya babe, if you liked this meal then I’m really excited for you to have Christmas with us. Pepper makes a ham that’s to die for and I bet you can help her with some of the sides next time,” Tony pulled Nebula into his arms. He leaned against the edge of the couch and sighed as he held her. Her own arms came up to encircle his and she snuggled in closer. 

They both sighed in contentment, Tony lowering his head to kiss the top of her head repeatedly. 

“I love you,” Tony whispered as the conversation continued on as the observed, left in their own world to enjoy the holiday. 

“I love you too,” Nebula said, looking up and kissing the underside of his chin, his stubble scuffing her soft lips. She closed her eyes and breathed him in. 


	5. Chapter 1 (Flashback of Nebula’s First Christmas)

It was December 20th and the Stark home was bustling with life, trying to get everything perfect for the first Christmas that their new blue friend would be spending with them. 

What they hadn’t expected was for Nebula to ask for everyone to have a chance to sit down so that she could tell them about alien life around the galaxy. 

“There are many different races,” she started. “I’ll tell you what I can about each of them, but even my knowledge is limited.” 

Rhodey, Pepper, Happy, and of course Tony all sat around her. Tony wanted to hold her hand but he also didn’t want to seem too pushy. But he always got nervous when she started talking about her past. 

“There are many different races. Recently The Dark Elves had their population decimated. Their numbers were cut substantially against an Asgardian here on earth actually.”

“I heard about that,” Tony said. “It was Thor, they fought against Thor. The rest of us weren’t able to join the fight due to the speed at which it happened.”

“Yes, Thor is of Asgard, our last hypothesis on the ship was that his people were guarding the space stone of Infinite Stones. It’s likely his planet will eventually be targeted by Thanos to attempt to acquire the stone.”

“I should send him a message then,” Tony said, logging that away in his memory. 

“The next race you should be aware of is the Kree. Ronan the Accuser is a member of this race. Ronan fights on Thanos’s side, Frost Giant Loki was the one who attacked your planet in this city, New York. But there are others, equally powerful, who have hatred towards your planet and the weak beings on it.”

“Hey,” Happy said.

Nebula turned to look at him. “Compared to the rest of the Galaxy, the human race is incredibly fragile.”

Rhodey nodded, putting a hand on Happy’s knee. 

“It’s good that they think we’re fragile Happy. It’ll mean we’ll catch them off guard when they try and start a fight they can’t finish.”

“That’s right,” Happy said, hitting Tony’s knee too. “Cause we’ve got Iron Man.” 

“Then there is my sister, she fights at Thanos’ side unquestioningly. She is from half of the surviving Zehoberei and is an unbeatable hand to hand fighter. She’s also green,” Nebula threw in as if it was an afterthought.

“Finally, there is Thanos himself, a powerful Titan, the last of his kind. He is resilient and merciless. When he sets his sights on earth, it won’t be an easy fight,” she locked eyes with Tony. “My sister beat me on a regular basis, even she couldn’t beat Thanos. He’s ripped worlds apart, worlds with aliens much stronger than humans. They don’t just sit down and accept his will. They fight back, but he always wins. Every time. Even with a planet full of people standing against him, he and his army will always come out on top.”

“We’ll be ready for him,” Tony squeezed her hand. “With your help, the Avengers will be able to take him down.”

“I hope so Tony,” she said softly. “I really do. I have something else that I think will help you all as we prepare to fight against my former father and his army.” The gear in Nebula’s arm began to whirl and open up in some unexpected spots. 

“This allows me to teach you all a language,” she moved her arm in front of her. “Specifically, the language of my home planet.”

“Oh, like how you learned English in a matter of seconds?” Tony asked.

“Yes,” she nodded, “exactly. It will be of great help to you, you’ll be able to understand some of their conversations if they try and hide their orders or strategies. You’ll also be able to decode any radio transmissions you can intercept.” 

“Sounds very helpful babe,” Tony winked at her and she smiled softly. A light blue laser shot out from Nebula’s arm and concentrated on each of their throats and foreheads for about fifteen seconds before shifting to the next person. 

When they were finished Nebula spoke. “How does it feel to know an alien language?”

“Woah,” Rhodey said. “This is incredible.”

“I can officially have an upper hand in language learning forever now,” Tony cheered.

“Alright you guys,” Pepper smiled and stood up. “It’s been great fun learning about aliens and being taught a new language in under a minute, but it’s time to get in the spirit of Christmas.” She smiled and walked over to Nebula taking her hands. 

“I want to make sure your first Christmas is perfect,” she smiled. “So we’re going to forget about the war for the next five days and really focus on Christmas time. Come on, I got all the gifts you asked me for, we’ll go to my room and I’ll teach you how to wrap them.” 

She tugged gently at Nebula’s arm and the other woman stood and allowed herself to be led down the hall to the next room.

It was five in the morning when Tony jumped out of the bed. He was sweating and clutching his arc reactor.

“Tony?” Nebula asked worriedly. 

“It’s, uh, it’s my S.H.I.E.L.D. pager,” Tony said grabbing it, trying to get his wild eyes to focus on it. “I, I’ve got to go. Merry Christmas,” he stumbled around the bed and kissed her. He ran for the elevator and his suit was already assembling itself as he waited impatiently for it to reach the next floor. 

Nebula stared at where he had left and huffed, exhaling and laying back into the pillows. She wanted to sleep more. 

About ten minutes later she had to accept that she wasn’t going to be able to sleep more. She tossed the covers off of her body, put on the silk pair of sky blue pajamas Tony had insisted she opened last night and headed upstairs. 

She curled up onto the couch and held onto a round pillow, waiting for Tony to burst in through the door. She hoped it would be soon. She let her head lean back onto the couch and closed her eyes, sighing deeply.

“Oh Nebula,” Pepper’s voice jolted her awake. “I’m sorry to startle you,” Pepper knelt down in front of her. “Why are you sleeping on the couch?”

“Tony left this morning,” Nebula said. “S.H.I.E.L.D. called him.”

“I see,” Pepper frowned. “Well, that’s not a very good way to start your Christmas.” Pepper led Nebula to the bathroom and gave her a washcloth to wash her face with. 

When Nebula came back Happy and Rhodey were on the couch, eyes fastened to the now on TV. She saw Tony, well Iron Man, flying through the sky and battling a group of Frost Giants. Why were they here? 

Tony would be just fine, Nebula rolled her eyes. Frost Giants weren’t really all that dangerous anyway. 

Sure any time he was in a fight she was a little worried but he seemed to be handling himself ok. 

He took a shot from one of the frost giants and some of his gear iced over. She felt her breath catch for a second but he lowered his glove and melted the ice away. 

See, he’d be fine. She didn’t want to watch though. It would only make her want to go and help him. 

She turned and went into the kitchen instead. She saw Turkey out defrosting and got to work cooking it. She remembered what Pepper had taught her and felt confident in her ability to cook it correctly. 

“Hey I’m home,” Tony said stumbling into the kitchen. “Nebs? Nebula,” he looked around and then saw her checking the oven.

“Are you alright?” she asked, turning to face him.

“Ya, ya I am,” he walked over and hugged her tightly. The tight embrace surprised her slightly but she didn’t fight it. Instead, she returned the embrace with one of her own. 

“I love you,” Tony mouthed to himself, not saying it out loud just yet. 

“The pajamas look great,” he said backing up and taking a better look.

“Thank you,” she grinned happily. 

“My pleasure, glad you’re getting good use out of them. Have you guys opened gifts yet?” he asked.

“No, we wanted to wait for you,” she said.

“Ok, cool, great. You go sit down and start piling up the gifts for everyone and I’ll make everyone hot chocolate. When I’m done I’ll bring it all out and we’ll officially start Christmas.” 

“The turkey will be ok?”

“You cooked the turkey?” Tony asked surprised and checked the oven. “Well, I’ll be damned. Great job, ya it’ll be fine while we open presents and stuff.” 

Nebula nodded and made her exit to the family room to join the others and let them know Tony was safely home. Then she reached under the tree and proudly presented everyone with their packages. 

She was glad that she had decided to cook, after all, she had been buzzing with excitement all night to open gifts, and she needed the distraction to wait for Tony.

Of course, she didn’t want to start without him, but she had still been excited. It was her first Christmas, and everyone in the house had been kind enough to make a big deal about it. They had already done so many little traditions. Tony had given her an advent calendar on December 1st and everyone had been enjoying the chocolate from that. 

Then there were Christmas Eve pajamas for everyone. They all watched a different Christmas movie every Friday and Saturday while sitting by the fire. 

And the stockings, of course, hung by the chimney and filled to the brim with goodies from the festive fat man. 

Pepper had been nice enough to do Nebula’s shopping for her, and Rhodey had picked up what she had wanted to give to Pepper. 

So now it just came down to opening everything up. 

As Tony returned she handed everyone a mug of hot chocolate and pulled Nebula into his lap to open her gifts.

“Mhmm,” he nuzzled his nose into her neck. “Perfect gift, right here.” 

The last thing that Nebula assumed would be memorable to end the night of her first Christmas was the slicing of the double layer pumpkin cheesecake. Pepper had shown her how to make the crust, they had decided on white chocolate together at the bottom and had created a delicious center layer of pumpkin. It had been painstaking work and Nebula had asked Pepper to practice with her twice before actual Christmas came around. 

So when it was time to get busy in the kitchen both women were well prepared. 

As Nebula served the cheesecake she gave the largest slice to Tony, watching in anticipation as he took a huge bite, nearly dropping it off the fork. 

He smiled widely, gulped it down and shoved another bite in before even managing a: it’s an incredible babe. Then a third bite before he licked his lips and said: “this might be the best cheesecake I’ve ever had. You should cook a dessert every night.”

“You won’t fit in your suit then,” she had teased him. But secretly she had been beyond pleased by his praise. She sat down beside him and started eating her own slice. 

The actual last memorable thing on her first Christmas happened near midnight. Everyone had fallen asleep on the couch watching A Christmas Story and Pepper had shaken them awake gently and sent them to their rooms. 

It wasn’t quite December 26th yet when Tony and Nebula retreated back down to her room. It was the most private space imaginable, no one ever went down except the two of them anyways. No one would accidentally stumble in. 

He kissed her, it was hot and sweet and tender, it was a promise of what was still to come. 

It was dark, with a brightly lit moon outside, but the inside of her room was black, and their reflections were barely even visible in the mirror. She was the first person to drag her shirt over her head, but Tony didn’t protest. 

Together they found the bed and fell onto it, their clothes already lost on the floor. 

They slept in on December 26th, Nebula’s first Christmas celebrated to the fullest. 


	6. Chapter 1 (Flashback of Nebula’s First Valentine Day)

Having a first Valentine's Day with anyone can be nerve-wracking, whether you're a new couple or you're in high school. But Tony couldn’t imagine that there was anything scarier than having to be someone's first Valentine ever. 

The problem is, if you’re a parent, having to be your child’s first-ever Valentine that’s fine. You have the advantage that your child will be young and they won’t really remember the day. The only thing they will remember will be the pictures you take, and you can control what those pictures are of. But unfortunately, when you start dating an alien from outer space you have to take on the unique challenges of being someone's first Valentine ever. And that means doing everything right and taking chances. It means making sure that everything goes perfectly, and they'll remember if it doesn't. 

On February 13th, Tony found himself in the insane position of running around and trying to get everything ready. He felt like a headless chicken if he was being honest. 

He already knew what his primary gift was going to be. However, if Tony was going to be responsible for introducing Nebula to the tradition for lovers, then he should put in some effort. He wanted to give her a small piece of each unique Valentine’s Day tradition. The first and most classic one was dinner and a movie. So he set out to their favorite restaurant and ordered to-go. 

After securing the food he snuck it back to the fridge in his laboratory. He wanted to make sure that Nebula didn’t accidentally find it inside of the fridge. Then he ordered a movie she had been talking about for a long time. She’d been pestering him about watching ‘Predator’. And while he didn’t exactly consider that a traditional Valentine’s Day movie if it was something she wanted to see then it was the perfect movie for them. 

After handling the dinner and movie Valentine’s classic Tony had to think about what else would qualify. The next most popular thing was most likely Coney Island. Of course, as much as Tony wished that he could take her out to Coney island there was no way he could. So thankfully he had thought of something a little sooner than February 13th. He’d been working on it for nearly a week, but with a lot of long nights, it was finished. He had installed it in a side room of his laboratory and kept the new room locked to prevent her from accidentally stumbling inside of it. 

As he was walking through his laboratory, getting the food put away, setting up a table and chairs and candles the bare door caught his eye. He decided that he should decorate it. So he went out and bought some thick red ribbon and adorable heart cutouts. He tied the ribbon around the door and taped the hearts onto it. While decorating had taken longer than he had anticipated it did look incredibly adorable, and Tony hoped Nebula would like it. 

There was a row of six hearts just above the ribbon and in each heart, he wrote a letter of her name. 

When February 14th finally arrived he woke up extra early. He put the coffee on and then went to wake Pepper up too. 

“Tony,” she complained, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. “This is cute and all, but why do I need to be woken up? It’s not like I’m getting breakfast in bed,” she grumbled.

“Obviously,” Tony said, “you’re not in bed.”

Pepper rolled her eyes at him but begrudgingly showed him how to make eggs benedict, pancakes, bacon, sausage, and strawberry jelly for his extravagant breakfast. Then, as he was setting up the tray, he kept staring at it. He was trying to figure out what seemed off about it, something was missing. He went to the fridge and grabbed an orange juice, pouring it into an elegant glass and setting that onto the tray. 

It still seemed as if something was missing though. He snapped his fingers and went down to his lab. He opened the fridge in there and smiled as he saw the beautiful vase of roses inside. He plucked one of them out and set it along the top of the tray. It was just above the plate with all the breakfast food he had worked so hard on. 

He made his way to the elevator, balancing the tray carefully. He waited for it to go down and then stepped into Nebula’s room. He set the tray on her nightstand and sat on the edge of her bed. He leaned down and kissed her forehead, then both of her eyebrows, her cheeks and finally her lips. She smiled, stirring from his attention. 

Her eyes fluttered open and they found him instantly. She stared at him, her dark orbs were confused at first but then settled into contentment as she recognized him. 

He would have flown around the galaxy in a nanosecond to see that smile again. 

“Good morning beautiful,” he cooed to her. 

“Good morning Stark,” she stretched. They had steered away from pet names for her. She wasn’t very good at them, to be honest, her idea of a pet name was ‘inventor’ or ‘mechanic’ and that just didn’t make him feel all warm and fuzzy inside. So they stuck with his name. She’d use Tony if she was feeling particularly affectionate. 

“I brought this for you,” he grinned setting the tray onto her lap.

“This is my breakfast,” she looked down at it.

“Yes,” he confirmed. “It’s breakfast in bed.”

“But we don’t eat breakfast in bed. We eat breakfast at the table,” she protested.

“Usually yes,” he admitted. “But today is Valentine’s Day. And on Valentine’s Day, it’s ok to eat breakfast in bed.”

“What’s Valentine’s Day?” Nebula asked him sitting up.

“It’s a day for people who are together, um, romantically,” he said awkwardly. “It gives them a chance to spend time together and give gifts to one another. They can spoil each other, and so I thought,” he pointed to himself. “That it would be ok if I brought you breakfast,” he did finger guns at her. She laughed. 

Tony pushed the tray closer to her and Nebula smiled and started eating. 

“Well, thank you for my breakfast in bed. I enjoy being spoiled.” At the end of her sentence, she started eating in earnest and Tony leaned back and watched her content. 

When she finished Tony stood up, hardly able to contain his excitement. “Great,” he tugged on her hand. “Let’s go, I want to show you something.” He wanted to take her and show off everything he had prepared for today. 

She stood up from the bed. “Where are we going?” she asked him. 

“It’s Valentine’s Day, so I have a few gifts for you,” he told her. 

“Was I supposed to get you something?” she asked staying firmly beside her bed. 

“It’s not a big deal,” he assured her. “I don’t think anyone told you about the fact that today was Valentine’s Day anyway. Or what it means. And I didn’t want you to feel stressed out about trying to get something so I didn’t mention it. It’s more like I want to show you how much I care about you. But I don’t need anything in return,” he kissed her lips gently. “I just want you to enjoy what I’ve gotten you,” he smiled. 

“Are you certain?” she asked, seeming weary. Her eyes were suspicious of him.

“Yes, I’m certain,” he confirmed with her. 

“Well then I suppose we could go upstairs,” she allowed. 

They got into the elevator together, holding hands. Once they were on the ground floor they found the stairs down to his lab and headed down them. 

Once they were in the lab he decided to give her the vase of roses first. He handed them to her.

“I got these for you. It’s a tradition for the guy to give the girl flowers on any romantic holiday. So birthdays, Valentine’s Day, sometimes Easter. But what am I saying? Don’t worry about Easter, we probably won’t celebrate that anyways.”

“Um here,” Tony said taking her hand and leading her over to the door. “This is one of your gifts, I made it.”

“It has my name on it,” she said touching each letter that was on the hearts. She traced them with her finger delicately. Then she untied the bow, the ribbon dropping to the floor. The door opened slowly. 

Nebula poked her head inside, the walls were black but inside was a life-sized replica of a Ferris Wheel seat. 

“J.A.R.V.I.S.,” Tony said. “Activate Carnival.”

The walls lit up and Nebula realized they were screens. A carnival came alive around her and she marveled from wall to wall. 

“What is this?” she asked, looking at Tony. 

He pulled her further inside excitedly. “Take a seat, my lady,” he opened the metal bar that would usually keep you from falling to your death. 

“Go ahead, get in,” he encouraged and took her hand to help her into the seat. He used his foot to steady it so it didn’t wobble. 

“This is a replica of a ride on Coney Island, a Ferris wheel.”

“Coney Island?” she asked.

“Yes, Coney Island is an amusement park. It’s really popular with New Yorkers, a common spot for dates, especially on Valentine’s Day. But since we can’t go outside,” Tony bit his lip trying to contain his excitement. He couldn’t wait to give her his last gift. “Um, since we can’t go outside,” he cleared his throat repeating. “I thought I would build you a replica here. So go ahead, sit down, sit down,” he urged. “I’m going to go turn it on outside and then I’ll join you. Ok?”

“Ok,” she nodded and sat in the chair. She didn’t pull the middle across yet, knowing if she did Tony wouldn’t be able to join her. When he returned he climbed into the metal chair. Then he closed the bar and squeezed her hand in his. 

“Are you ready?” he smiled.

“Yes,” she nodded excitedly. 

“Alright. J.A.R.V.I.S. go ahead and start operation Ferris Wheel Date.” With the command, the lights on the side of the Ferris wheel cart started lighting up. The noise that would have been common around Coney Island filled the room and the screens all went to project a regular night time view from the top of the Ferris wheel. Tony had programmed in the slight movement to the cart to simulate the feeling of going around and around in circles. The cameras changed to enhance the experience.

Nebula squeezed Tony’s hand gently, making sure not to crush his bones. As they kept going around and around she rested her head on his shoulder, he shifted so his arm was around her. 

“This is wonderful,” she glanced at the scenery around them. “I love it,” she exhaled then leaned up to kiss him softly. 

They rode the Ferris wheel for a long time, five or six songs with Nebula tucked under his arm. The speakers echoed throughout the room and it really was easy to close his eyes and pretend he was with her at Coney Island. He almost didn’t want to give her any of the other gifts or do anything else that he had planned. This seemed perfect, he didn’t want to leave. For a moment he was upset with his own bad planning to make this the first thing on the Valentine’s Day agenda. Because he could have fallen asleep here, he should’ve made this their last spot instead. 

But after what must have been at least two hours, who cared how long anyways, they decided they should step out of the simulation. 

“I can’t believe there’s more,” Nebula said. But her smile was wide and she seemed genuinely excited.

“Of course there’s more,” he smiled back at her. “I couldn’t just get you one thing for your first Valentine’s Day. That wouldn’t seem right,” he took her hand and walked her over to a table. 

The table had a white tablecloth, linen napkins, beautiful plates, polished silverware and of course her roses, right in the middle of the table. 

“Have a seat,” he pulled a chair out for her. 

Then he went and got the food he had ordered last night out of the fridge. He put it into the oven to heat it up. 

“What’s that?” he heard Nebula as she poked her head over his shoulder. He laughed. 

“I ordered your favorite meals from your favorite restaurant, no big deal,” he grinned.

“When did you have time to get that?” she asked. “I thought the restaurant was only open for dinner?”

“It is,” he confirmed. “But I went last night and kept it in the fridge so that we’d be able to have it together today.”

“That sounds wonderful,” she smiled. 

They returned to the table together and exchanged excited conversations about some of the things Nebula wanted to add to their next Valentine’s Day. 

When the oven went off, Tony hurried over and pulled the trays out. He served both of their plates, trying to get it as elegant as he could. It was nowhere close to the way the restaurant presented it, but it was heartfelt and it was more perfect because of it. 

The dinner was over candlelight and fantastic conversation. It was eaten slowly and enjoyed thoroughly, with both of them reaching across the table to hold hands occasionally. 

After dinner, Tony played a few slow songs that Nebula had become a fan of and they danced in his lab. Most of the equipment had been moved towards the walls to make way for them. 

The two of them danced, holding each other nicely, happily. The dancing lasted for a few hours, happily swaying to different beats. 

“Hey,” he leaned back to look down at her.

“Hm?” she sighed looking up at him, the whole day had passed them by. He bent down to kiss her gently. 

“Let’s go back to your room,” he grinned. 

He cued up the large television that took up most of the wall across from her bed. He popped in Predator and then took his shoes and shirt off. He laid on the bed with her and pulled her into his arms. The movie started playing and she clapped happily as the title appeared. 

“You got it?” she asked looking up at him.

“Of course,” he kissed her. She broke the kiss quickly to give it her full attention. She kept her eyes glued to the screen as she watched the horror movie unfold. She squealed and cuddled into him, she watched in anticipation as fights went on. She critiqued them as the action scenes ended and gave suggestions too. And while it wasn’t his idea of a romantic comedy to put you in the mood it certainly did a good job. 

At the end of the movie he took a large leather box from his jacket pocket and placed the box onto her stomach. She looked at him confused.

“Haven’t you done enough already?” she asked. 

“Some might say so, but this is your present. I was really hoping to have it done earlier but unfortunately, it took longer than I thought to perfect. But Happy Valentine’s Day.”

She picked the box up and opened it excitedly. She revealed a beautiful silver bracelet. 

“I love it, Tony,” she smiled. “But I’m not sure how you made jewelry.”

“No,” he took the bracelet and unfastened the clasp. “I bought the bracelet. The programming was what’s kept inside of the beads. Go ahead and put it on,” he encouraged as he held it open for her to slide her wrist in. 

“Squeeze the bead,” he pointed to one of them.

She brought her fingers from the other hand over and squeezed it gently between her thumb and forefinger. A blue laser came out and covered her body. It swept over her once, then twice, and finally a third time. Then it suddenly created an illusion over her. It masked her elegant blue skin with the mundane color of human skin. 

“Look in the mirror,” he encouraged her. She bolted up and hurried to the mirror, her lip trembling. 

She looked at a face that wasn’t hers and lifted her hand gently to touch the skin.

“It’s just an early prototype,” he said nervously. She turned to face him, her lip quivering. “It lasts somewhere between a half-hour and an hour, fluctuating based on factors I haven’t isolated just yet. But it’s something.”

“Tony,” she said breathlessly. “I, it’s everything,” she was near tears.

“Want to go outside?” he asked.

“I’d love to go outside,” she hurried over to the elevator and pressed the button to call the elevator. 

Tony smiled and stood from the bed to walk over to meet her by the elevator to travel to the ground floor together.

“Where could we go?” she asked excitedly. 

“Well, it's a little bit late at night right now. But perhaps we could ask the house to walk outside with us, and you could show off your new freedom. And then we can all figure out somewhere to go tomorrow morning.”

“Do you think everyone will want to get up?”

“They know how important this is to you, I think that everyone will be really excited to share the moment.”

The elevator came and the two stepped inside excitedly. Tony asked J.A.R.V.I.S. to call the family to the front parlor. While they waited nebula was jittery with excitement. one by one they appeared, first Happy, then Rhodey, And finally Pepper joined.

“Sorry for the delay,” Pepper said. “What’s the summons for?”

“Nebula had something she wanted to show you guys,” Tony squeezed her shoulder. 

“Look,” Nebula took her shaky hand and squeezed the bead on the bracelet, projecting a new random human image over her form.

“Oh wow,” Happy marveled.

“That’s sick, that is sick,” Rhodey clapped. 

Pepper smiled widely, “well done Tony.”

Nebula ran around the parlor excitedly. 

“Can we go out to breakfast tomorrow?” she asked, squeezing Rhodey’s hands and looking at him hopefully. 

“I would love to go out to breakfast with you tomorrow,” he smiled.

“And you?” Nebula turned her borrowed brown eyes towards Happy.

“I’ll drive,” he joked. 

“Pepper, you’ll come too won’t you?” Nebula reached over and squeezed her friend’s hand.

“I’ll always support you Nebula,” Pepper stepped forward and pulled the other woman into a warm hug. 

Nebula squeezed her and opened her eyes to turn to Tony, then she mouthed thank you, and he beamed. 


	7. Chapter 2

The new year did indeed bring new challenges with it. 

The first challenge was the bombshell that Nebula dropped. 

One night when Tony, Pepper, Happy, Rhodey and Nebula had been getting ready to eat together Nebula shot up straight in her chair.

“What?” Tony had asked her. She pointed to the TV where a sorcerer was flying by. “Oh, that? Don’t worry, we have other superheroes I don’t have to go every time there’s an emergency,” he grinned. 

“No, that’s the time stone,” she said grimly. 

“The what?” Rhodey asked looking at her. 

“The time stone,” she repeated. It was then that Nebula informed them all about Thanos’ plan, the five different stones, the massive power they would bring. 

“Before I crashed my ship here and the radar went off I thought I picked up two different readings here. I figured it must have been wrong but, seeing that one, it must be correct.” 

“Jesus,” Tony had run his fingers through his hair, not sure what to do with the information. 

A year later, the second problem he was facing was Nebula getting more stir crazy and Tony looking for more and more efficient ways to get her out into the open.

He’d been flirting with a lot of new ideas lately but the one that seemed most plausible to him was some sort of camouflage. He had been testing a lot of prototypes out on his own Iron Man suit. It was easy enough to tell people that it was just a helpful new feature. Most people even agreed that it was an intelligent addition to his suit. 

But the truth of it was that he was desperate to perfect the technology so that he could hide Nebula. 

Well, that wasn’t quite right. It wasn’t that he wanted to hide her, he still wanted to hold hands with her and take pictures, and if it was up to him her beautiful blue skin wouldn’t be an issue at all. But to New Yorkers and Planet Earth who had just been threatened by alien life forms, it didn’t seem overly likely that they’d welcome the idea of alien life on earth, especially not if someone who was supposed to be saving them was dating that alien. 

Tony wished that it would be different, that instead, the fact that it was him would inspire kindness and trustworthiness. Hell if anyone knew what a bad alien looked like the guy who almost died sending a nuke into space sure seemed like an authority. He sighed and shoved his welding glasses down and took the blowtorch. He was positive it wouldn’t be a good thing to the world that he and Nebula were together.

What made him even angrier was that he was pretty sure that even a lot of his friends would have a problem with it. Clint would definitely be against it, not that Tony could really blame him, after all, Loki had really done a pretty terrible ping pong match with the poor guy’s mind. And of course, Natasha would be on his side. 

Tony bet that Cap had never gone against even one order he was given, and this certainly didn’t seem like the time he’d start. Fury would probably be, well furious.

Tony grumbled, he couldn’t even laugh at his own puns he was so miserable. 

He looked up as Nebula walked down the stairs and into his workroom. 

“Hey hot stuff,” he said without looking up.

“You are the one with the blow torch,” she said.

“I know,” he laughed. He loved her literal way of taking everything. It was refreshing. She sat down on the workbench across from him. 

“I don’t understand why I can’t simply walk out the way that I am,” she took some tools out and laid them out. She was creating a new laser gun for herself. 

Meanwhile, he continued fiddling with the newest cloaking technology he was attempting to perfect. This one combined cloaking and holograms so that her appearance would also seem more everyday human-like as opposed to a blue alien.

He was also trying to fit the tech into a really gorgeous gold bracelet he had made, but that part wasn’t going so well either. Gold was a really shitty metal to work with because of its softness and malleability, which meant it didn’t really hold its form well around heat. And, unfortunately, there was a lot of heat involved with wiring circuitry.

“Tony,” she called his attention back to her original statement, which he hadn’t meant to ignore. 

“Babe I wish that you could, you look perfect to me,” he muttered around the screwdriver in his mouth. “But the government won’t quite agree. And I couldn’t stand the idea of you getting hurt just because I wanted to be selfish and take you on dates in public.”

“I can’t just stay in this house all the time Tony,” she reached her hand across to cover his. 

He looked up at her, her honey-brown eyes were pleading with him to understand. He took the screwdriver out of his mouth and set in on the table. 

“I know honey,” he gripped her hand tightly in his. “I know, and I don’t want you to. It’s just that I love you so much, and I couldn’t bear the thought of them wanting to detain you or anything like that. Just be a little more patient with me ok? I’m not just sitting around and doing nothing, I promise I’m not. So just, give me a little more time.” He gave her a sad smile, one that he hoped conveyed how hard he was trying. He hadn’t divulged the details to her yet because he wanted to surprise her but he really had been working as much as he could in every direction to accommodate her wishes. To give her just a little bit of freedom like she was asking. Like she deserved. 

She growled at him but instead of pulling her hand away she gripped his tighter. 

“How much more time?” she huffed. Her tight grip forced him to look at her, not that he would dare to look away. 

“A month,” he said, hopeful that he could finish in time.

“That’s too long. I was thinking more like a couple of hours,” she said.

He laughed but coughed to cut himself short. 

“I’m good babe, I’m not quite that good yet. But I am trying, and I promise you, it’ll be worth the wait.”

“Tony,” she stood and whirled around in the room, looking for something to punch. His robots all moved out of sight quickly. 

“I can’t, I can’t just stay here. I’m starting to hate it here. You get to leave, you go off and work, you drive around in the car. You get to see things, Tony. I’m trapped here.”

She sighed and her shoulders deflated, she’d found nothing to hit and now her anger was fading. “I know you love me and Thanos didn’t, but I feel just as trapped.”

He stood up immediately and walked around to her, wrapping her in his arms and pulling her close.

“I never want you to feel like that, I never want you to feel like you can’t get away from him. I’ll work on it, give me a second, I’ll think of something.” 

He held her tightly, kissing the top of her head as she wrapped her arms around his waist. If there was ever a time for a brilliant idea it was now. His mind was working, looking for solutions. 

“Ha, ok, I’ve thought of something. It’ll still be a little restrictive, but I think I can do better than this. Give me just a second, I need to make one phone call ok?” he was clapping his hands and already hurrying to the stairs. 

“Alright,” she said as he practically galloped up to them. She smiled despite feeling incredibly claustrophobic. She could tell how much Tony really loved her, and it made part of her ache. To think that she had once thought Thanos had loved her. 

Tony’s affection and doting only proved to her how little Thanos had cared about her. Perhaps he really did love Gamora, her sister, but he couldn’t love her. Not the way she wanted. 

Tony was different though, she could tell he really was trying as hard as he could.

“Alright blueberry, let’s go,” he reappeared halfway down the stairs holding his hand out towards her. She rushed over to him and clasped it and he took the stairs quickly pulling her up. 

He wrapped a scarf around her and zipped a nice jacket on her. Then he took her out the front door, much to her surprise. While they were outside her held his own jacket over her and she looked down, just in case someone was watching him, as was common apparently. Then she stepped into the open door of a black car with pitch-black windows.

“Alright Happy,” Tony said. “Let’s take a drive around New York, make it last a while,” he smiled. 

“This is a vehicle?” Nebula asked.

“Ya, a car,” he said. He helped her fasten her seatbelt and then draped his arm around her. “The windows are heavily tinted, so no one can see in. On top of that, I have a divider between us and Happy so even if someone pulls us over or something, no one will be able to see in the back where you and I are.”

“So if I’m in this then I can go outside?”

“Yes, we can’t leave the car. I’m still working on some other stuff for you, but hopefully, this will at least hold you over.”

“Yes,” Nebula threw her arms around Tony’s neck and hugged him tightly. She stayed there, hanging on him and looking out the windows as they made their way into downtown New York City. 

Happy was an excellent tour guide, picking spots that could be enjoyed and viewed even from inside the car. 

Of course, there were one or two times that Nebula really wanted to get out and explore, but she held herself back from asking, knowing that this was as much as she could get right now. And knowing that this was much more than she had had as of yet. She was satisfied, she wanted more but this helped. 

They spent the entire day driving around, Happy filled up the gas several times, not that Tony cared. And they probably went by the same things a few times, not that Nebula cared. She was just happy to see it, to finally be a part of Terra’s culture, even if she was a little bit removed.

She was thankful for the parts of Tony this place had created, and it was wonderful to get even a little bit closer. 

As they were headed back towards the house Tony’s phone buzzed. 

“Sorry,” he said, kissing the side of her cheek and she leaned up and off of him so he could reach into the pocket of his suit and fish his phone out. 

“Hey Rogers,” he said as he addressed the good two shoes All American hero.

“Hey yourself,” the strong, crisp voice of Steve came over the line. “I need to talk about some information that S.H.I.E.L.D. has given to me and your not home.”

“Ya, sorry, out on the town right now. Where are you? I can meet you there soon,” he circled his finger at Happy indicating he wanted his driver to hurry up. He’d have to drop Nebula off quickly and then head back out.

“I’m at your house actually,” Cap said and Tony felt his mind start moving like molasses. 

“I’m sorry you’re where?”

“Ya, I figured you’d be home so I stopped by. Pepper let me past security.”

“Great, ya, perfect. I’ll be there soon then.” Tony hung up and looked at Happy.

“Cap is at the house,” Tony said. 

“Well that’s not good,” Happy looked in the rearview to look at his boss for instructions.

“A little bit Happy, it’s a little bit not good ya.” He rubbed his temples, trying to think. Fuck, maybe this hadn’t been such a good idea after all.

“What is it, Tony?” Nebula set her hand on his back and he felt his heart rate calm down. No, it had been a good idea. She needed it, she deserved it. 

“Cap can’t find out about you. He’s a goody-two-shoes he doesn’t know how to lie or keep things from the government. And I don’t want him taking you away from me. But I don’t have any other way into your room other than the elevator. I had originally thought that was better but now in a situation like this I can see how that’s definitely a disadvantage.”

She let him think for a moment but his mind was coming up blank.

“I can just stay in the car, in the garage with Happy until you’re done.”

“I don’t know what he wants to talk about. It could be all night,” Tony said looking up at her.

“Then I stay there all night. It’s not like he’ll stay forever, and I won’t be alone or in danger. I’ll just be in the garage.”

“But, you’ll get bored,” Tony said rather lamely.

“I can survive some boredom,” she assured him. “It is the best option, right?”

He thought and then sighed, pulling his hand through his hair, upset to admit it. It was the best option, especially the best option that they had with the circumstances and such short notice.

“Ya, yes, yes it is,” he confirmed. “But I don’t have to like it.”

“I know,” she hugged him again. “But today was worth it.”

He pulled back to look at her and then leaned in to kiss her. She never initiated kisses but it didn’t bother him, he knew that she was still trying to get used to having someone care about her. Her father had really done a number on her and she wasn’t always able to communicate her feelings well. But she was getting better. And he liked kissing her, she always reciprocated so that was really all he could ask for. 

“You’re amazing,” he said as Happy pulled up to the house.

“You are too,” she said. “Now go see your blue friend,” she said pushing on his arm.

“Wait, what?” he gave her a quizzical look. 

“Your blue friend, you always say that about him.”

He was still staring at her blankly. 

“You say that he is star-spangled or something, and then you talk about how he is red and white and blue.”

“Oh,” it finally clicked in his head what on earth she was talking about. “Yes, yes, thank you, honey. I will,” he kissed her again, hardly bear the thought of her being out in the open and away from his protection. 

He stepped from the car and closed the door. Happy headed quickly to the garage. It was still his property, he reminded himself. She would still have the protection of Jarvis and every other system he had ever built. And soon he’d have her camouflage options configured so she could try them. And within the month the new house would be finished, and that he was truly thrilled to show her. He couldn’t wait for construction to be over. 

He straightened his tie and then headed inside to meet with the golden boy himself. If he was being honest it was probably for the best. He should share the information Nebula had given to him about the infinity stones and Thanos, even if he couldn’t explain how he knew just yet.


	8. Chapter 3

"Hey Cap," Tony saluted as he walked into his house.

"Hey Tony," Steve rolled his eyes. "I was just coming by to check on some of the progress. We got a few new notes from S.H.I.E.L.D. as well," Steve sat on the couch and so did Tony. Tony stretched out, making himself a bit more comfortable. He wanted to give off the appearance of calm. 

"Neat, I love new paperwork," Tony picked the portfolio up and looked over it while Steve sat there. About halfway through the second page, he realized he hadn't offered the man anything to eat or drink.

"Hey Pepper," Tony yelled, still reading.

"Yes, Mr. Stark," Pepper appeared in the living room. 

"Can you get something to drink for the captain here?" he nodded his head, not taking his eyes off the paper he was reading. 

"Yes of course, what would you like sir?"

"Just some water is fine," Steve smiled at the likely overworked, assistant of Tony's. 

"Oh, and Pepper, bring some snacks too, something I can eat with my fingers," Tony said, twirling his hand in the air. 

"Of course sir," she continued to the kitchen.

"What is this crap?" Tony asked, tossing the report onto the table.

"Uh, it's highly coveted S.H.I.E.L.D. data, data that some people spent a lot of time collecting and may have even given their lives for Tony. You should be more respectful," Steve's gaze was chastising.

"Well I'm sorry, I'm not trying to be disrespectful or anything like that. I appreciate that the agents are doing what they can but some of this information is just straight up wrong," he shrugged.

"How do you know better than the agents assigned to intel gathering?"

Shit. Tony hadn't thought about that question before opening his big mouth. His brain tried to work on overdrive thinking of an explanation besides, oh because I have Thanos' daughter hidden in my garage. Also, I'm in love with her, that's fine right?

"I've been intercepting some of their radio waves," he lied confidently.

"Tony, if you have a frequency you have to let S.H.I.E.L.D. know about that. You can't just do whatever you want all the time.”

“Blah, blah, blah, you always act like such a goody Cap, live a little.”

“Tony, this is no time to ‘live a little’. This is serious, the fate of our world depends on it. What information do you have that contradicts what's in the report?" Steve sat up straighter and moved closer to Tony. 

"Well here, it has the leader of the resistance listed as Ebony Maw. Ebony Maw hasn't even been brought up. The leader of this inter-galactic threat is Thanos. He's a Titan and he's trying to obliterate half of the universe."

"Half of the universe?" Steve's eyebrows arched up. "Why?"

"Because he thinks the resources are going to run low and end up killing planets in their entirety, that's what happened to his."

"So he's just going to kill half of the people outright?"

"Yup, apparently he thinks it's better to just randomly kill half a population instead of letting them have a chance to figure out better resource management. It seems like a fun guy.”

“Again Tony this isn’t the time for jokes. Do you know anything else? Have you heard anything about Ebony Maw.” 

“Anyways,” Tony waved Steve off, “I haven't heard anything about Ebony Maw," Tony picked the report up again, wincing at the picture. "He's kind of an ugly fuck isn't he?"

"Tony," Steve glared at him.

Tony shrugged. "I'll ask though."

Tony's mind was whirling, he wondered if Ebony Maw really was someone that he should be concerned about. If he was then it would be best to find out from Nebula right away

"You'll ask?" Steve looked at him curiously.

"Ya of course," Tony replied automatically before realizing that he had put his foot in his mouth.

"Tony, I thought you said you just had radio surveillance of them. Are you communicating with them?"

"No, no, well not really. Kind of, but not like them." Steve stared at Tony. "Jeez ok, well a few months ago a spacecraft crash landed outside of my house, Pepper, Happy and I went outside to see if it was a threat but it wasn't. Instead, it was," he hesitated not sure if he should tell Steve it was Thanos' daughter. "It was an alien who had worked for Thanos. But he had kept her trapped there, and had controlled her and taken her apart piece by piece when she lost fights."

"That's terrible," Steve said.

"I know!"

"Well, what happened after that?"

"After that, I took her in. I helped her heal up, took care of her, made a secret bedroom for her."

"You what? Tony, you have to report this to SHIELD Agency," Steve gave him a firm look.

"No, nuh-uh, nope, that's what we're not going to do," Tony shook his head. 

"Tony."

"I said no," Tony's eyes were firm and Steve recoiled a bit in surprise. 

"What reason do you have for holding back the information?" Steve asked.

"What if they put her into prison Steve? What if they torture her? What if they want to hold her captive for information? What if they send her to Area 51 and dissect her?"

Steve shifted uncomfortably, it was pretty obvious that at least some variation of one of those ideas had gone through his head.

“Do you think Area 51 is real?” Steve muttered, not knowing what else to say.

“I mean we work for a top secret agency that specializes in aliens and you don’t think Area 51 is real? We probably have clearance,” Tony said exasperated. “They’ve probably captured some of the things, no, no,” Tony corrected himself. “Some of the people we’ve fought Steve.” 

"Well, I mean, then what do we do Tony?"

"We treat her like a person, Steve. Because she is one, they all are. If you promise me that you won't hurt her and you won't report her or me to SHIELD Agency. then I'll introduce you. But I can’t risk her being turned over. All of this crap going on is proof of what they think of aliens. I may have had my company clean up New York after the attack, but even I don’t know what the government did with those resources. But it’s easy to see from what The Vulture did that it was nothing good. If they get their hands on her, I know it won’t end well Steve. Please, as my friend."

Steve seemed to think for a minute.

"Ya, ok, I'd like to meet her. I've gone through so many changes already, I can have an open mind about a good alien. And if you vouch for her, well, you're my friend Tony, I trust you."

Tony let out a sigh of relief. 

"Thank you, follow me." They exited the house and walked through the lawn towards the garage.

"So you were just hiding her in the garage from me?"

"Well we'd gone out on a drive so she could see the city a little, then you called and were already inside so I didn't have a lot of options."

Steve laughed. "Sorry for the inconvenience."

"It's not a problem," Tony shrugged, clicking the garage door open. 

"Hey Nebula, I have someone here who wants to meet you," Tony called. The garage was large, accommodating many of the cars he had bought, some on a whim, some to restore, and some because they reminded him of his dad. 

There was no response.

"It's ok Happy, it's Steve, you guys can come out, no guns, no weapons, no tricks. Promise," Tony heard muttering and then one of the doors opened. 

He smiled, heading in that direction. 

The blue woman walked towards him and Steve and he smiled fondly. 

Her eyes were calculating, fierce, eyes of a warrior. It was obvious that she was sizing Steve up and trying to decide if there was any deceit in Tony's words. 

"Hands up Rogers, she's a well trained combat specialist."

“How do you know a well trained combat specialist?”

“You know Natasha.”

“Techinically you met Natasha first.”

“Because she was spying on me,” Tony rolled his eyes. “Why you jealous?”

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

Steve turned his attention back to Nebula. 

"Why is she circling us?"

"She's making sure you don't have any weapons," Steve copied Tony and put his hands up. 

Nebula looked at Tony, her body loosening up, her muscles no longer taut and tense. 

"You brought someone out here to meet me?" she asked, confused.

"Actually I thought I'd come and get you and bring you inside," he nodded towards the house. 

Nebula nodded and walked towards him, ignoring Steve entirely. Steve was surprised as Nebula took Tony's hand. 

"Did you enjoy your city tour?"

"I did, it was much larger than I imagined."

"That's good right?"

"I suppose," she shrugged.

"And the garage? Did you like your time in that as well?"

She tilted her head to the side. "I was simply hiding with Happy." Tony glanced behind and saw that his driver was in fact following behind them. He nodded and Happy nodded back.

When they made it back inside Nebula sat so that Tony was in between her and Steve.

"It's nice to meet you," Steve held his hand out.

"Oh this is good, we haven't covered this yet. Here on earth, when you meet someone you shake their hands." Tony gave Steve a firm handshake as an example. 

Nebula reached out and gripped Steve's hand uncertainty. 

"Tony said you had questions for me," Nebula said, glancing nervously over at both men.

"It's ok," Tony put his hand on her knee. "I'm not going to let him take you. You're going to stay right here, with me, and your family."

Nebula nodded but her shoulders were still tense. 

"I did have some, I'd appreciate it if you could answer them. If you don't know that's alright, I'd rather you not know an answer than give me incorrect information."

Nebula nodded her understanding.

"Our intelligence tells us that Ebony Maw is the leader of the alien forces headed to earth to take over. Is that correct?"

"Ebony Naw is one of the generals, he's the leader of the Black Order, which is a special force that serves my father. But he is not the person leading the forces, he may be in charge of the Black Order but he is not in charge of invasion."

"I see, could you clarify a few things?" Nebula nodded. "So, is your father the person who is in charge of Ebony Maw and also the invasion?"

"Yes," Nebula nodded.

"I see," Steve glared at Tony who just shrugged. "And who is he?"

"His name is Thanos, he is the last of the Titan race. His goal is to collect all of the infinity stones in order to eliminate half of the galaxy's population. Still, whatever world he goes to along the way, he and the Black Order will eliminate half of the population themselves."

"So, he just, murders half of the people he encounters?" Steve was surprised.

"Yes, that's what he did to my planet and to my sister Gamora's."

"So you're a Titan?" Steve asked.

"No, Thanos is my father because he says he is, but he did not give birth to me. He did not raise me from when I was young, nor did he for Gamora. We are merely children he told himself that he was saving."

"So Ebony Maw is the leader of the Black Order, who else is in the Black Order that we should be careful of?"

"All of them," Nebula said very seriously. "The Black Order was my father's most elite group of warriors. They had hundreds at their command, and the Six, now Five generals stood strongest and tallest, only dirtying their hands with particularly resilient fighters. Ebony Maw was the only one who sought my father out. Joining him when his race perished from overpopulation. Cull Obsidian was taken by my father when his planet was attacked, raided, and then culled. He is a strong and loyal warrior now, as all of those who remain with my father is."

"Why remain loyal if he kills your planet and kidnaps you?"

"Because if you don't, then he kills you too."

Steve fought the urge to shiver, her eyes were intense, and had clearly been hardened in the fires of war. 

"The other two generals of the Black Order are a husband and wife, though they are different species. My father attacked their planets separately and took them into his army. During the training and time spent there they fell in love," Nebula smiled wryly. "They got married, and now they enter each fight side by side, more likely to kill someone who attacks their partner rather than themselves. It doesn't matter though, it's just as deadly.

"The wife is Proxima Midnight, a fierce warrior. She's never shown mercy to anyone, not even children. If they stand in her way then they fall. Her husband is Corvus Glaive. He'll do whatever she asks, the only person he listens to more faithfully is Thanos himself."

"And your father, Thanos, the leader of this invasion. He's coming here, to earth?" Steve asked.

"Yes, I have every reason to believe that this will be his next stop."

"And why is that?" Steve asked.

"Because, there are Six infinity stones, Power Stone, SpaceStone, Time Stone, Reality Stone, Mind Stone, and Soul Stone. Two of them are here, on your planet. So my father will come here. It is true that he needs all six to cut the universe in half, but even one stone such Power or Reality could have a devastating effect on his power levels."

"How many did he have when you left him?" Tony asked.

"When I left he had given the mind stone to a Frost Giant-Asgardian Loki in order to try and secure the space stone. But that failed, now the mind stone is somewhere on this planet, as is the time stone."

"Where are the others?" Steve asked.

"I do not know," Nebula said. 

“Who has the time stone and the mind stone now?”

“I haven’t looked. Once I landed here and started staying with Tony I wasn’t concerned about the location of the stones anymore. Well, not in any way except for helping Tony.”

“I see, so what exactly was your mission?”

"My mission was to discover the location of the mind and space stone and secure them."

"Have you done that?" Steve's eyes narrowed.

"I have not."

"Why not? What made you change your mind?" Steve stood from the couch and glared at the blue woman, his protective instincts flare up. He could feel the rage building inside of him. This woman wasn’t trustworthy, whatever Tony saw in her Steve knew he was wrong. She was just using Tony and his tech to accomplish her objective. 

In Steve’s mind, there was nothing that Nebula could say to convince him that she was here to help them. Or at least, that’s what he thought before she spoke. 

"Love," Nebula admitted freely. The shock on Steve's face was apparent. 

“Love?” he asked, looking from her to Tony. The color on his friend’s cheek told him everything he needed to know. Tony felt the same way about her. 


	9. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sanctuary Mini is Original Ship just for this Fanfic  
> Sanctuary Mini is 1/10 Size of Ship of Sanctuary 2

“Everyone should be here Tony,” Steve had said. Tony felt his hair stand on edge instantly. 

“No,” he whispered.

“Why not?” Steve challenged him.

“What if they’re rude to her?” Tony felt his stomach flip. “What if they don’t like her? What if they want to turn her over to Shield Agency?” 

Steve was quiet for a second. “Tony, we’re your family, do you really think we’d do that?” 

No Tony didn’t really think they would. But that didn’t make his fear any easier to deal with. 

When everyone arrived Tony was tense. 

“Hi,” Bruce was the first to walk over to her and offer his hand. “I’m Bruce Banner,” she took his hand and shook. 

“You are part of the… science bros?” Nebula said, looking curiously at Tony. He busted out laughing, and the other Avengers did too. 

“Who told you that?” Bruce smiled at her happily. 

“Pepper, is that wrong?”

“No, no, we’re the science bros,” Bruce grinned. 

“I’m Natasha,” the assassin nudged Bruce’s arm so she could shake the blue woman’s hand. 

“Nice to meet you,” Nebula shook. The rest of the introductions went smoothly. Tony was finally starting to calm down when Steve dropped the bomb. 

“We’re all really happy to finally meet Tony’s girlfriend,” the golden boy smiled. 

Tony’s eyes were wide. 

Thor laughed suddenly and boisterously. “Congratulations,” he hugged his Midgardian friend. “You are a lovely couple,” he clapped Nebula’s back and she smiled gladly. 

Tony should have expected that Thor would be the first to accept them. He was grateful though. 

“How long have you two been dating?” Bruce asked. 

“Almost 2 Years now,” Tony said. 

“Oh,” Natasha’s eyes were wide. “I’m surprised that we haven’t heard about her before now.” 

“Sorry,” he apologized.

“No, no,” Clint said, “it’s alright if you’re happy, we’re happy. Right guys?” Everyone agreed.

And ultimately, they acted like his friends, like his family. And he was glad. Natasha decided to take Nebula out to the back to spar. Clint spent some time trying out her alien weaponry with her help to improve his handling of the equipment. Thor just wanted to arm wrestle, which Nebula gave him a very good run for his money on. When she lost Tony patted her on the back, kissed her cheek and told her that Thor was an Asgardian so it was fine. 

He saw the ghost of her past in her eyes though and squeezed her shoulder. 

"No one's going to hurt you here babe," he reminded her. "It's just a game, it's for fun. Like football frisbee. Remember that?"

She had nodded and squeezed his hand back. 

“Good,” he rubbed her arms. “Then keep trying until you kick his ass. You can do it.”

“Thanks, Tony,” she put her arm back out towards Thor as an offering. 

Bruce wanted to know all the geeky stuff, he went down to Tony's lab with her and asked her to tell him all about the different areas that she had studied. She showed off some of the things she had made in Tony's lab and Bruce was fascinated. 

Steve was a little harder to get a read on. He didn't directly ask Nebula to do anything. Tony worried that maybe it was because he didn't like her. He didn't really know how to go up to Steve though and ask him like 'hey why don't you talk to my girlfriend?' It seemed like a kind of tacky thing to say. So instead he grabbed two lite beers and walked out to Steve on the balcony overlooking where Natasha was sparring with Nebula again.

"How are they doing?" Tony asked, handing a beer to Steve. 

The super soldier eyed him up and took the beer, nodding appreciatively at his brainiac friend. 

"Natasha is learning really well. She seems to like a lot of the techniques that Nebula has been showing her. I'm guessing they're rather unfamiliar."

"Oh ya," Tony said, opening his beer and taking a drink. "Nebula said she trained on a lot of different planets, so I'm not surprised to hear she has a lot of different techniques. She's really well rounded," Tony said. 

"It seems so," Steve smiled.

"So," Tony drawled. "Why don't you like her?"

"What do you mean?" Steve's eyebrows furrowed together as he looked at his friend. 

"I can tell you're not a fan of Nebula. Come on, we're adults, it's not a big deal, we don't like everyone we meet but I'd like to know why if that's ok."

Steve started picking at the label on his beer. "It's not like that Tony. My reservations aren't personal."

"So they're professional?" Steve stayed silent. "That's fine, tell me your professional reservations too. We're friends right?"

"Ya," Steve said quickly. "Of course we're friends Tony, this doesn't have anything to do with that. In fact, that's exactly what I wanted to avoid you thinking." He pulled his long fingers through his platinum blonde hair. "It's not that I don't like her as a person, she seems nice, she does. I'm just wondering if any of it is real."

"What do you mean?" Tony asked, his voice tight.

"I mean, she doesn't have any reason to tell us this information. Did you consider the fact that she might be feeding you false intel in order to put us at a disadvantage when Her Adopted Father Thanos actually does show up to invade the Planet Earth for Time Stone and Mind Stone?" 

Tony didn't say anything for a second, taking a drink of his beer instead. 

"No," he admitted. "It hasn't crossed my mind. Frankly, I don't want to think about it. If you do, I understand. I won't hold it against you man. I just ask that you don't do anything to put her in danger. You can stay here and keep an eye on her if you want. But just don't turn her over to Shield Agency. If you do that, I've got complaints. As we said, we're friends, so I trust you to be discreet. 

"For my part, I'd like to make it perfectly clear that I do trust her, no part of me wonders if she's feeding information to Thanos. But I know a lot more about her than you do, so that makes sense."

Steve stared at his friend, he was acting surprisingly mature. "Thank you, Tony. I'll take you upon it. And if it ever does come up, I'll be sure to mention that you never wavered."

"Thanks, see, I knew we were friends," the billionaire grinned. "Cheers Cap," he held his beer out towards his friend, watching as Nebula and Natasha exchanged punches.

"To what Tony?" Steve held his beer towards Tony's anyways. 

"I don't know," he shrugged. "Happiness? Better tomorrows? You finally telling Natasha how you feel?"

Tony laughed as the scarlet appeared over the super soldier's cheeks.

"Well, maybe that last one is asking for too much. You'll get there," he nodded and took a sip of his beer. 

"Sir," J.A.R.V.I.S. interrupted. The alarms blaring loudly and a red light coating the property in flashing crimson as it tried to alert the residents. 

"Stark?" Steve looked at Tony.

"What is it J.A.R.V.I.S.? Report!" Tony ordered.

"Sir, an Unidentified (Spacecraft Sanctuary Mini) is headed towards the property. It's closing in sir. Less than 100 miles now."

"It's already entered the Planet Earth's Atmosphere?" Tony asked, dropping his unfinished bottle to the floor and running for his lab to get his suit on.

“What kind of ship J.A.R.V.I.S.?”

“It appears to be alien of nature, there are 1000 organic lifeforms on board and it seems heavily armed.”

"Avengers," Steve yelled over the balcony. "Get your gear," he himself sprinted for his shield, laying against the wall just inside of Tony's house. They had relaxed, it had been foolish. 

"What is happening?" Nebula called up to Steve. 

"Tony's system reported an incoming spacecraft," Steve called back.

His eyes went wide as suddenly the craft in question was just behind Nebula. 

Her eyes widened as a shadow dwarfed her. She turned, alarmed to find that it was far too late to escape or hide. Her amber eyes were wide as she stared at the all too familiar ship. 

"Father," she whispered. The port above her began to open and Proxima Midnight appeared next to her. Nebula’s eyes were wide as Proxima held a gun out, shooting Natasha, sending her soaring across the courtyard.

"Nat!" Steve screamed as he jumped from the balcony, a shield strapped to his arm. He raced for her, not noticing that the craft was here now, that it was in Tony's backyard. And that it was taking his best friend's girlfriend. 

Nebula didn't protest, she didn't fight against it. She knew what would happen. The light flooded down from the ship and the beam calmly distorted her mass from the free land of the earth onto the oppressive ship of her father. 

"Welcome home daughter," Nebula was surprised that her father stood before her. She wondered for a moment if it was a hologram or if he was really wasting his own precious time greeting her. 

"Hello father," she said evenly. She had learned from him the same lesson over and over again, show no fear. 

She hoped that Tony would forget about her, the one thing that he had managed to teach her very successfully was the ability to love. She did love him, and she didn't want him trying to pick a fight with her father. He wasn't ready. None of them were. She would rather remain in the service of the cruel Titan overlord for the rest of her life, however long or however short than have him risk his own trying to retrieve her. 

"Did you get good information?" he asked. 

"I was detained at this facility for most of my time here. They dismantled my crashed ship but weren't able to make much of it alone. I was in the middle of attempting my escape when you arrived, that's why I was fighting that weakling." 

Lying wasn't hard for Nebula, she'd done it her whole life.

"I see, very good. Then I am glad that we arrived when we did. Ebony, turn the ship around, let us leave this planet for now. We are not yet ready to siege here."

"Yes sire," Ebony bowed his head and programmed the ship to be removed from the atmosphere.

"Nebula!" she felt her heart stop in her chest as she heard a familiar voice. She'd heard him call her name so many times, for so many reasons. But this one had her stomach dropping. 

Don't be this stupid, she willed in his direction. Let me go, she was shaking. Wishing that this stupid race was telepathic so he knew just how futile it was. 

"Tony," his friend called after him. But he was flying with his suit, chasing after the ship she was in.

"Who is this daughter?" Thanos asked, looking down at her.

"No one of consequence," she said. "I don't even know his name." She turned away from the monitor. Tony had been getting smaller, they were flying higher and higher. Soon they would leave earth's atmosphere, and she would be captive once more. 

“It seems as if they’re trying to follow you,” Thanos walked to his control panel. “Perhaps I should put a stop to that,” Thanos typed in a few commands. “I believe this species has only just begun experimenting with nuclear weaponry. A bomb of that substance should give them more than enough to do,” he reached for the button.

“Why to waste such valuable resources?” she asked. “This race can’t survive outside the atmosphere,” she said. “Once the ship breaches it, it will no longer matter.” 

He stared at her for a long moment and she held her face straight. 

He looked away. 

'I promise you'll stay here with me forever,' she smiled at the floor, remembering Tony's words. How foolish she had been to believe them. No one could stop Thanos, no badly how much she wanted them to. 

The only thing Nebula could hope for now was that she and Tony would both survive the culling of the galaxy. 

"Ah, it seems we've finally reached the security of space, my dear," Thanos's booming footsteps could be heard as he left the transit room, heading back to his planning study she assumed. Good riddance. 

She felt her body trembling as she went to walk to her old room, likely just as she'd left it. 

"He's but a distant memory now, he won't reach you again," Thanos said. “And if he does, I’ll drop so many bombs on his planet it will wipe out the upper half of the world.” Perhaps it was meant to be reassuring, but Nebula suspected that it may have been more of a Terrorist Threat. 


	10. Chapter 5

**Our System**

“Nat,” Steve knocked gently on the door to her room.

“Come on in.” 

He opened the door and saw her standing by the window.

“Natasha, you’re supposed to be in bed. You were shot.”

“That was 2 months ago. It’s ancient history.”

“No,” he took her hand, gently tugging on it to guide her to the bed. “It’s very recent history, you need to heal darling.”

She pouted at him. “But Steve. Everyone is helping, I want to help too.”

“You don’t need to worry about it,” he assured her. “Everyone just wants you to rest up. I promise.” 

She sat back down on the bed. 

“Let me see your wound?” he asked.

She nodded, lifting her shirt up. There was still a blackish blue discoloration around where the shot had pierced her that he wasn’t in love with. But overall it was healing nicely. 

“See, ancient history,” she said, dropping her shirt. “What is not ancient history is Tony’s girlfriend.”

“I know, she hurt you,” he said.

“What? No, Steve, Tony’s girlfriend went with them so that they wouldn’t attack me again. They took her away, she’s basically a prisoner.”

“Nat”

“No,” she said firmly. “We have to help Tony get her back. Promise me?”

He looked at her, completely surprised. “I promise,” he nodded.

**Systems away from our System**

"I feel so fortunate to have you Nebular," Thanos said one morning as he stood in front of his holographic panel.

"Thank you father," she replied.

He paced around the image of the galaxy. "I wish that Gamora could have held strong to the same resolution and loyalty that you did," he paced and paced until he was right behind her. 

"I too wish my sister hadn't betrayed you, of course, father," Nebula didn't flinch as he touched her. His hand rested on her shoulder, gripping it firmly. She knew better than to show fear. 

"Your sister does still have something she can give me though. I need you to help me find her Nebula."

"Doesn't she have a tracker on her?" Nebula asked, staring blankly at the map of the galaxy. She no longer felt any loyalty towards the sister that had abandoned her. Nebula convinced herself that, in her place, Gamora would do the same. Especially if she had someone as wonderful as Tony to get back to. 

"She does indeed. You have a keen memory," Thanos said, releasing her shoulder and patting it. He walked to the control panel again and typed in a few buttons. 

"Ebony Maw," he didn't even bother looking at his officer.

"Yes, sire?"

"Direct us towards this coordinate," he gestured to the green mark flashing among the many other planets.

"Yes, sire. And make sure that I'm not disturbed, I have some business to attend to. Nebula, I would appreciate your help in the matter," he looked back at her and she turned briskly away from the calculating eyes of Ebony. 

She followed the towering back of Thanos. She knew that Tony and the other Avengers had plans to clash with her father. All she needed to do was survive until they made their attack on him. And then, once she and Tony were side by side again, she'd be able to return to his side. She closed her eyes, surprising the smile that tried to take over her face at the thought of it. 

She would be with Tony again.

"Daughter, come into this room," Thanos opened a door. 

Nebula was startled to recognize the repair room.

"Father?" she looked at him in concern.

"Come and lie down on the table. You've been away from the ship for a long time. I'm sure some of your gears and wires must need maintenance. I doubt you had the proper equipment where you were kept."

Nebula didn't dare say that she had actually been in quite capable hands. She didn't want to reveal that Tony had been maintaining most of her robotic parts just fine. 

She laid down on the table. She looked up at the dark, oppressive ceiling, knowing that she'd allow her father to do whatever he chose to. Just as he always had. 

"You won't mind answering a few questions for me while I work, will you?"

He turned on the magnetic field so she rose off the table and he'd be able to work easier.

"Of course I don't mind father." 

"Very good," he grabbed the first tool and began work on her leg. 

"What was the house you were staying at?"

"I'm not sure, I was kept underground for most of my time there."

"Didn't you have a location when you crash landed?"

"The screen said Terra, I think it may have flashed America. But nothing more specific."

"And you didn't get any other information while you were there?" he asked.

"No," she said. Her eyebrows knitted together suddenly. Her leg, it felt... hot. She tried to look down and figure out what was happening but it was impossible.

"Father," she said alarmed. "Something feels as if it is malfunctioning around my leg," she reported.

"I would imagine so," Thanos said. "Just when did you decide to betray me Nebula? When did you think that you had elevated so much that you could fool me with your lies?"

"What are you talking about the father? I would never betray you," she said vehemently. But her heart pounded. She didn't expect to be found out, and if she were to be, certainly not so soon.

"You are an adamant liar at least, I will give you that." The burning made its way farther up. She screamed, she tried to twist away but couldn't. 

"I would not betray you!" she cried out loudly. "I would never betray you! I would give my life for your cause! I have always fought at your command, father!"

"It breaks my heart," he said in his usual, unflinching tone. "To see that my daughter has turned into a treacherous liar. It's not what I would have wanted for you Nebula. I don't want to do this, please know that."

"Stop, stop please," her eyes were wide from the pain as she felt the bolts on her arm begin to be undone. 

"I wish that I could. I do. So please, just tell me what I need to know Nebula. Whose house did you land at?"

"I don't know," she said, her voice shaking. She wouldn't betray Tony. She wouldn't prove Steve Roger's concerns about her true. She would live up to the trust that Tony's friends had put in her. He was coming for her, she told herself. All she had to do was hold out. 

"No matter," her father, no, the monster Thanos shrugged as he stared over her. "Eventually, you will tell me," he twisted the bolts of her artificial limbs back, her arm, her eyes. He disassembled every part, letting it drift away from her as she shook, paralyzed in the air above his torture table. 

The torture continued that way, Thanos rewiring parts of her at his own whimsey. Him taking a blow torch to some of her sensors. He even began piercing needles through the nonartificial limbs. 

Nebula didn't talk though. 

"Just hold out," she muttered to herself as she slipped towards unconsciousness. It was under her breath and Thanos had been called to the doorway by Maw. "Just hold out," she muttered. 

He'd asked so many questions. Who had she stayed with? What kind of defenses did Terra have? Were the readings and estimates given by the machines accurate for Terra's strength? Were average citizens capable of fighting back and resisting? Was Terra involved in inter-galaxy travel? Were non-terrains common? 

Nebula didn't answer any of his questions. Always instead responding with: I don't know father. I am loyal only to you. I was kept underground, there was no way for me to gather this information. 

Still, he tortured her though. 

She let herself fade into darkness as the doors closed. Hopefully, Thanos had left her for now. Wires hung from her limbs, blood dripped onto the slab beneath her. 

Nebula fell in and out of consciousness. She had no idea how much time had passed at all. But it was fuzzy even between bouts of consciousness. 

The first time she woke up she was alone, so she faded away again. 

The second time she woke up Thanos was carving into her leg, she screamed a few times but then the pain knocked her out. 

The third time was because a lower ranking scout offered her water to quench her throat.

The fourth time she was alone.

The fifth time the generals were around her. Ebony Maw, Proxima Midnight, Cull Obsidian, and Corvus Glaive. They stood around her. She could barely see them. But a moment later she felt them.

“Traitor,” Proxima hissed as she stabbed Nebula in the side. 

“Traitor,” Ebony echoed as he stabbed her in the thigh. 

“Traitor,” both Cull and Corvus said as they stabbed her in both arms. Then the generals walked out. It hurt, the blades were left in her. But soon enough darkness claimed her once again. 

"Nebula," she heard Thanos' voice booming in her ears, bringing her back to consciousness.

"What did you do?" Was that Gamora's voice?

"What needed to be done. She betrayed me. She crashes landed on Terra and expects me to believe she has no information to give me. Still, though, your information is more valuable Gamora. Tell me where to find the soul stone."

"I already told you I'd never say," Gamora's voice was tight. Nebula tried to turn her head to look at her sister. She'd missed Gamora. Despite everything. 

"That's fine, keep saying the same thing then."

Nebula screamed as hot iron was pressed against her side.

"Nebula!" Gamora yelled. But she didn't feel Gamora touch her, why not, was something stopping her. 

"Stop, stop it," Gamora screamed.

"You can stop it, daughter," Thanos said. "Tell me where to find the soul stone, and I will leave Nebula alone. I'll put the iron away, I may even release her from this magnetic field." 

"You can't, tell him," Nebula choked out.

"It seems you've finally decided to reveal you're true colors," Thanos said. He stabbed the rod through her stomach and Nebula gasped, coughing up blood in an instant. 

"I'll tell you! I'll tell you but you have to heal her!" Gamora screamed. 

"No," Nebula tried to protest but the blow had been too much. The gaping hole in her side after the Weeks of torture. The Weeks of questioning. She had no more strength left.

"Just let me go," she begged.

"I'm still waiting for my answers," Thanos said as he began stitching the hole in her stomach with no numbing agent.

"Let me do it!" Gamora screamed. It seemed as if she had broken away from someone, throwing them off and rushing to her sister's side.

"Nebula, oh Nebula," she pushed past Thanos. "Here, sh, sh, sh," she hushed her sister as she tried to speak. "I'll fix you up. You don't need to worry," Gamora gave her a shot in the side to numb her. Nebula took the opportunity to start slipping towards unconsciousness. 

"Where is the stone daughter?"

"Set a course for Vormir," Gamora said. And then Nebula didn't hear anything else. 

**Our System**

"Tony, I think we could use a little more preparation time," Steve said. 

"I don't care, things have already taken too long. I’m not leaving my fiance out in space with her galaxy endangering father.” 

“You proposed?” Steve seemed surprised.

“Ya, did I not mention that?”

Steve was speechless for a moment. 

“Steve you're either coming with me, or you are not. But decide fast because once the checks are done I'm going," Tony said.

"Of course we're coming Tony," Natasha squeezed his shoulder. "Come on Cap, don't chicken out on me now. Your all battle suited up," the woman smiled. Her hair was blonde now. Cap liked it, it looked good on her. 

"That I am," he looked down at the space suits Tony had designed for the team.

"I'll stay here and keep track of your location. I'll also serve as an on the ground scout and I'll be able to communicate with the government," Bruce said.

"Sounds like a really fun job," Tony clicked a few things on the ship.

"Where is the screen for the guns on this thing?" Clint asked, looking over his controls. 

"S.H.I.P. bring up the gun options for Hawkeye please," Tony instructed.

"Right away sir," the new automated voice replied. 

S.H.I.P. or Surely Home is Possible. Tony had named it in honor of Nebula. He would go after her, and he would bring her back. Currently, they would take off in the smaller function, but their ship was equipped with transformability, so it could become larger as needed. 

He had designed it to have individual flying pods, connected by thinner hard to damage metal for their traveling speeds though. They'd be a smaller target, harder to hit, less likely to show up on radars, and most importantly as fast as possible. 

Tony needed to reach Nebula as fast as he could. Thank god for the bracelet he had given to her was still transmitting a signal. But he knew the truth, without a new battery that thing could give out at any moment.

"Come on Cap, climb in."

"We're ready to head into space sir," S.H.I.P. gave him the go ahead.

"Ok, strap in everyone, Natasha, you've got the command," he said begrudgingly. They had all forbidden Tony from taking the pilot's seat because they knew he wouldn't stop until he had found her. 

"Alright, hold on boys," she said. The ship lifted off the ground slowly, hovering, then she hit 'launch' and it sped for open space.


	11. Chapter 6

**Galaxy**

Nebula wasn't permitted to accompany Thanos and Gamora to recover the soul stone. She was related to staying on the ship, waiting anxiously, still suspended, for her sister to return. Her cuts were finally starting to heal up. Gamora had treated them with some of the antiseptic medicine they kept on the ship. She had stitched everything too. 

"Don't worry," Gamora had kindly brushed her fingers over Nebula's skin. "I'll take him to where it is and then I'll come back to you. You won't be alone anymore, alright?"

"You, you shouldn't take him there Gamora," Nebula had said quietly.

"I know," Gamora said solemnly. "I know that he won't do anything good with it. But I can't let him keep doing this to you. And if I get him the stone he promised to stop."

"He's lying," Nebula said. 

Gamora looked at her for a moment before smiling sadly. "Maybe, but it's the only chance I have."

"I understand," and then Gamora had left with him. It wasn't too long ago. 

Nebula waited for news, hoping that somehow her sister had outsmarted their brute of a father. 

A loud crunch of metal and a guard screaming could be heard. Nebula felt her nerves stand on end. She could tell that something had gone wrong but had no idea what it could be.

The door to her room was pulled open, the cogs forced past the speed at which they usually turned. 

"Did you know?" her adopted father's rough voice.

"What? Did I know what?" Nebula asked, fear rising in her voice. She had never seen her father in such a rage. He was usually so calm and collected. 

"The price for the Soul Stone! What laid ahead for her on Planet Vormir?"

"I know nothing about the Soul Stone or Planet Vormir. I didn't even know that's where the stone was being kept," Nebula said. Her father's hand rested unsettlingly gently on her shoulder. "Where is Gamora?" she whispered. 

He was silent for a minute and then he looked at her. "Gamora isn't coming back. I'm going to have Ebony Maw try to rest your brain," he patted her forehead gently and walked away.

"What?" she mused, her chest tight. 

Tony, she thought. Please hurry, I thought I could wait until we made it back to earth but, I don't know anymore. 

**Galaxy**

"Are we picking anything up on the radar Tony?" Natasha asked. Steven and Clint were both grateful for the red headed assassin's willingness to talk to the moody billionaire. He had been shot with all of them but it hadn't seemed to bother Natasha as much. So they had unofficially nominated her master of communications. 

"Nothing yet," he said. 

"Oh, I have an incoming message from a Nova Corp," Clint reported. "I'm sending it to your screen now," he pinged it over. 

Tony looked it over. "It's an SOS," his voice was strained.

"Do they specify us specifically?" Nat asked.

"No, it's just a general one."

"What do they say is wrong?" Steve asked, warily, hoping Tony wasn't about to chew him out.

"It states that they're under attack."

"Details?"

Tony's body tensed up. "They're attempting to defend the Power Stone."

"That's one of the six Infinity Stones isn't it?" Steve asked, alarm raising.

"Yes, it is," Tony begrudgingly admitted.

"Then we have to go," Steve said.

"I know that," Tony gritted his teeth, transitioning their ship for faster travel. "I'm inputting the coordinates now."

"Tony," Natasha said. "The likely hood is that it's Thanos right? And if that's the case then there is a good chance that Nebula is there too."

Tony hadn't thought about that. "You're right," he typed faster, extracting the coordinates from the message. 

"The system of the galaxy that Nebula gave to me is identifying this planet as Nora," Tony said. "Ok, we're moving to hyperdrive in five ... four ... three ... two ..." and then the ship sped forwards. It pushed everyone back into their seats and Tony couldn't even mutter 'one' for fear of biting his own tongue off.

It put a tremendous amount of pressure on their bodies and brains but Tony would have to hope they all recovered alright because this was the only chance they had of reaching the planet on time. The sustained speed was exhausting, it probably didn't even last a full minute but it was still draining. As they neared the planet, their ship forcing itself to slow down in order to not break their necks, they didn't see any obvious signs of distress. 

"Try to make contact," Steve said. 

"Give me a second," Tony felt woozy, groping around his control panel and looking for the transmitter. "Hello, hello this is the Avengers," Tony sent over the radio. "We're responding to a distress signal sent out from these coordinates. If that was you please respond."

They waited for the four of them with baited breaths. No response.

"Try again?" Natasha offered.

"Hello, this is the Avengers," Tony repeated his message. 

"Yes, hello," someone replied. "I'm sorry, but you're too late. Thanos has already taken the Power Stone," a strained voice said. "And then, he, he-"

"May we come down, we'd like to offer any aid we can," Natasha said over the radio.

"My people won't fight you," the voice said. "We're not in any condition to anyways."

Tony configured some specs and then was able to maneuver inside the atmosphere of the planet, landing their ship on a space of open area.

"Oh my God," Natasha stepped out of the ship first.

"What is it?" Steve followed quickly.

"Fucking hell," Tony whispered, his eyes sweeping over the destruction. 

"This is worse than war," Steve mumbled.

"This is worse than anything," Clint replied. 

The four Avengers looked out over a planet that was dripping in blood. Bodies littered every open surface. 

"Hello Avengers," a male of the Nora planet walked over to them.

"Hello," Steve stepped forward and extended his hand. "I'm Captain America."

The leader looked at him oddly.

"On Planet Earth, it's a sign of meeting," Natasha said from behind Steve. "People shake hands," she demonstrated shaking hands with the captain.

"Ah, I am Nuk'tol," he said and shook Steve's hand. 

"I wish I could say it was nice to meet you," Nuk'tol said.

"I'm sorry we couldn't arrive sooner," Steve said.

"You are brave to come at all. There were much closer than you did not respond. With a force so small, I will say that I am impressed."

"What happened here?" Clint asked. 

"Thanos happened. My people tried to defend the Power Stone, we know what he's like. Everyone in the galaxy has heard of his ruthlessness. He took it from us, and then he killed 6 Billion of 12 Billion of my brothers and sisters. Chosen at random, his generals emerged from the ship with Billions of Outriders and began slaughtering my home."

"Why?" Natasha asked.

"He is from a race Titan that has gone extinct, he is the only Titan left. Because the people did not ration their resources, so he seeks to eliminate half of every planet's population in order to keep the all species alive."

"How forward thinking of him," Clint said sarcastically.

"He will move on now," Nuk'tol said. "He has taken what he wanted from my planet. He will seek out the other four stones. From what I could tell he now possesses the Soul Stone and the Power Stone."

"Thank you for this information," Tony said. "Do you know where he's going next?"

"I do not know the location of the other stones, but for the people who possess them, I hope they are strong. My people are not peaceful, we are warriors, and still, we were overcome by Thanos' armies."

"Well, if we can track him," Tony said, rushing back towards the ship. "Then they won't have to do it alone." 

“Do you know the location of the other stones?” the leader rushed after them.

“No,” they shook their heads. They turned to face him. All of them focused on what he was going to tell them so that they would be able to remember and put the new knowledge to use. 

“As you may already know, both the Mind Stone and the Time Stone are on Earth. The readings come back close to one another so it is likely that they are located near one another in the same region. The Mind Stone is yellow and has the power to control the mind of whomever the user desires. 

“The Time Stone, on the other hand, is green. The Time Stone has the power to stop time, reverse it, loop time, or speed it up. Usually, the Time Stone is used on a smaller scale, perhaps around one object or person. If used on a large scale it could create drastic consequences.”

“And both of these are on Earth,” Steve said to confirm.

“Yes,” Nuk’tol nodded. 

“Alright, do you by chance know the location of any of the other stones?” Natasha asked.

“Yes, the Reality Stone is located on the Knowhere.”

“Nowhere?” Tony asked, confused.

“Knowhere,” Nuk’tol repeated. “It’s the severed head of a dead Celestial. A few hundred years ago people started living there. One man, in particular, the collector. He began, well, collecting. Among the many unique and obscure items kept in his collection is the Reality Stone. It was entrusted to him by the Asgardians.”

“Thor’s people?” Clint asked.

“Yes, Thor, King of Asgard. Do you know him?” Nuk’tol asked.

“Yes, Thor is part of the Avengers,” Steve confirmed. 

“I see, Asgard entrusted the collector with the location of the Reality Stone because they themselves were already protecting the Space Stone. And the Asgardians knew it was unwise to keep two Infinity Stones so close together. It attracts attention you see,” Nuk’tol looked at the Earthlings knowingly. 

“Too bad we never got that memo,” Nat said under her breath. 

“We’re doing what we can now,” Steve said.

“Ok, but we’ve never been to Knowhere,” Clint said. “How do we even find it?”

“Its galactic coordinates are M2RD 17H17211+2121224,” Nuk’tol said. 

“J.A.R.V.I.S.?” Tony asked his AI. 

“I have the coordinates, Mr. Stark,” the AI confirmed.

“Good, because we’ll be going there right after we locate Thor, start running a tracker J.A.R.V.I.S.,” Tony said. “Thank you very much for this information,” Tony reached out and shook Nuk’tol’s hand. 

“Of, of course,” the leader seemed surprised. 

“We’ll do everything in our power to keep Thanos from getting those stones. More of our teammates are on earth and we’ll send them an SOS as we head for Asgard.”

“Asgard before Knowhere?” Steve said.

“Yes of course,” Tony said, already turning to head back to the ship. 

“Thank you,” Natasha said as she turned to follow the two boys back towards the ship. She knew they were desperate to try and catch the monster, and stop him from getting any more powerful. 

“If Thor has the Space Stone,” Tony said as they were getting strapped in and hurrying to take off. “We should head to him first.”

“Thor can protect himself, Asgard is a strong population,” Steve objected. 

“Thor is our own,” Tony said. “We go to our own first. J.A.R.V.I.S. have you located Thor?” Tony asked.

“Yes sir, I’m loading the coordinates now.” The coordinates were punched in and then they blasted off. 

**Galaxy**

Thanos smiled, pleased with the work they had done. He now possessed the Power Stone, the Soul Stone, and the Space Stone. He walked over the dead bodies of the Asgard people. Their survivors huddled in the back. Only the two brothers who attempted to defy him laid dead at his feet.

“People of Asgard, rejoice,” he smiled at them, gripping the stone triumphantly in his hands. “Thanks to the state of your planet, your world has already been equalized. You will live,” he nodded as he left with his generals to get back on board his own ship. 

“Set course for Nowhere,” Thanos said. 


	12. Chapter 7

**Galaxy**

"The ship Statesman doesn't look in good shape," Natasha noticed as the Avenger's ship flew close to the coordinates discovered by J.A.R.V.I.S.

The rest of the team was quiet. 

"We go and check," Tony said finally. 

"Permission to come aboard," Tony radioed to the other ship. Silence. "Permission to come aboard?" Tony repeated. 

"May we ask who is requesting?" the group all felt their hearts drop. It wasn't Thor's voice, Voice of Valkyrie. 

"It's the Avengers, Tony Stark, Natasha Romanoff, Steve Rodgers, and Clint Barton," Tony ID'ed everyone. 

"Permission granted," Valkyrie responded. 

Tony connected the ship and then they walked through the protected port. 

"My God," Steve said as they saw the first glimpse. 

"Oh no," Natasha said, the first of the group to see Thor's dead body. 

"Not Thor," Steve whispered. 

"Loki too," Clint said, and Tony was surprised to see that he seemed to feel bad even though Loki had used him back in the battle of New York. 

"What happened here?" Tony asked one of the Asgardian standings by the controls. 

"Thanos came," Valkyrie stepped forward. "He took the space stone and both of the brothers died trying to defend it. I'm sorry, the rest of us would have been no match for him so we didn't-"

"It's alright," Steve said. "You don't have to apologize for putting your families first. Thank you for telling us." He looked at Tony and nodded. 

"Uh, you can all head to Planet Earth," Tony said. "Truth be told I don't know if you want to, we have two Infinity Stones (Mind Stone and Time Stone) there so Thanos will be headed in that direction, but the planet will take you in, they'll let you stay and do their best to protect you just like the rest of the citizens."

"We appreciate your kindness Migardians," Valkyrie and the Asgardian people bowed and the Avengers all nodded, paid their respects, and returned to their ship. 

"Now what?" Steve asked as they settled into their seats. 

"Now we go to Knowhere, we try and stop him before he gets the Reality Stone." Tony punched in the new coordinates and the ship took off. 

"Tony," Natasha said. "Do we have a plan for if Thanos does get there before us?"

"He can't," Tony said willfully. 

"But if he does?" Natasha repeated. 

Tony sighed. "If he does, our only option is to return to earth and reach out to everyone who has ever shown any interest in helping us. If we're going up against this mad Titan with four of the six Infinity Stones and we're standing between him and the last two, I mean, we have to fight, and we have to expect it to be a hard fight." 

The ship was quiet. "Maybe we should go faster," Clint said.

"Good idea," Tony switched them to hyperdrive, and even though it made all of them feel sick none of them complained. 

"We're here," Tony grumbled. 

"The radar," Steve exclaimed. 

"It just reported a large ship size of Two Earth Continent traveling the opposite direction of us," Clint said. 

"No, no, no," Tony smashed the keys on his keyboard, trying to determine if that ship was Thanos'. 

"Was it him?" Steve exclaimed.

"I'm trying," Tony said through gritted teeth. His search was suddenly cut short as a message popped up, it said Nebula's name on it. 

"Stark?" Steve asked. 

"Um, I'm going to connect the port, you guys go onto Knowhere and I'll try and figure this ship thing out. Radio back if you encounter Thanos. My guess is he's not there though if he was the radar would show another ship having ported."

"Alright, stay safe Tony," Clint said as the three of them rushed to disembark. 

Tony's heart fluttered as he clicked on the message. 

When he clicked on it Nebula face appeared and he covered his mouth. Aside from being unbelievably happy to see her, he was horrified to see what kind of condition she was in. He promised her this would never happen again, but here she was, her face looking back at him, battered, bruised, injured beyond his wildest imaginations. That monster was supposed to be her father, how could he do this?! Crap, she was talking and he wasn't listening. He started the video over.

"I don't have much time. Tony, Thanos has already collected four of the six Infinity Stones, the only ones left are on Earth. You must return there quickly to defend your Homeplanet and the Infinity Stones. Tony, he cannot get his hands on those. He's bringing his Warships and his army that totals over 6 billion. The other 6 billion were lost in the War for the Power Stone. I hope this finds you well, I love you."

Then the message cut out. 

"Natasha," he radioed her.

"We're searching for Tony."

"No point, hurry back to the ship, the stone is gone. We have to head back to Earth at hyper speed to try and beat Thanos." 

"What?" Steve responded. "How do you know?"

"Nebula managed to send me a message, that was their ship, and they have the stone from Knowhere. The residents are probably dead already."

"We're on our way," Clint said. 

Tony didn't have a lot of time to collect his thoughts. He'd let Nebula down. He wasn't worthy of her. But, he had to think about the Earth now, the people there needed him. And with any luck, he'd be able to rescue Nebula too. He knew as soon as she was out of the ship she would find her way back to him. 

**Galaxy**

She knew she had to wipe the tears from her eyes. Sif had no time to mourn her two dear companions. Thor and his brother Loki. It hurt, thinking of them now. But she had to make it to the dwarf's planet, the last star, and get a new weapon so that she could stand up against Thanos. 

Mjölnir had been destroyed by Hela, not that Sif would have been considered worthy anyways. But she couldn't rely on old Asgard relics, she needed a weapon of her own, something that could be made especially for her. With the intention of killing Thanos. 

"I need your assistance," she said as she landed on the planet. Only one dwarf remained, but he agreed to help her. It was hard work, she had to withstand the front blast of a star. But she held on, she battled through the pain and intensity. She was amused to see that the star had even supercharged her wrist cuffs. 

"Lady Sif," the dwarf looked to her as she came back down. "I believe that we have made a weapon worthy of your task."

She looked at the ax and smiled. She picked it up by its golden staff, melted down from her own Asgardian jewelry. 

"It is a fine weapon. Thank you," she put a hand on his shoulder and he gripped it. "I have sent a message out to my people to stop here and pick you up. You will not be left alone here."

"Your kindness knows no bounds," he said. 

"I am sorry that I must leave you now," she said sadly.

"For the fate of the whole galaxy, we both know you must be on your way."

She nodded and leaped into the atmosphere, headed after the ship. It's the destination, Midgard. 

**Planet Earth**

"It seems that our time in space wasn't completely useless," Steve said as they reentered Earth's atmosphere.

"And more importantly," Natasha cut in. "It seems that we still have a planet to return to."

"Yes," Clint sighed with relief. "It appears we managed to beat Thanos."

"I'll contact the World Governments and let them know to prepare for a full force invasion," Tony said.

"I'll brief Bruce," Natasha headed inside.

"I'll go and speak to the Nova Corp, Guardians of the Galaxy, and the Ravagers," Steve said. "It will be important that we're all on the same page when Thanos attacks."

"I'll go and reach out to the other superhumans," Clint walked inside. "And ask Pepper to start a task board so we can keep track of what's done and what's not. We also need to make sure someone lets the government know that the Asgardians are coming and will need somewhere to stay safe. Asylum is different from fighting another war." 

The team split up working as quickly as possible. Pepper's to-do list seemed endless, but none of the Avengers took breaks, all rotating through the tasks and letting her know of the results so she could quickly catalog it. 

“Tony,” Pepper called as a woman in silver and red armor crash landed in the front yard. 

“I’m coming,” Tony said, noticing the worried pitch of Pepper’s voice. “What is it?” he asked, appearing at her side. She pointed and he headed outside.

“Tell Steve to join me, J.A.R.V.I.S. suit time,” and the nanobots rushed him, putting the suit onto him piece by piece as he exited the house. 

“Hello, who are you?” Tony called to the warrior. 

“I am Lady Sif,” she announced herself.

“Hello Lady Sif, can I ask what your alliance is?”

“I am allied with Asgard,” she said, the large ax at her side seemed a formidable weapon.

“I see, your people are landing off one of the coasts near Maine,” he told her.

“Yes, I appreciate you looking after them, I am here to fight against Thanos though.”

“It sounds like we’re getting a good ally then,” Steve came outside, putting a hand on Tony’s shoulder. Tony let his armor fall off of him and went over to shake hands. 

“Tony Stark, pilot of the Iron Man suit.”

“Steve Rogers or Captain America,” they shook hands. 

Sif was brought into the base and Tony and Steve went back to their phone calls and preparations.

"Nebula?" Pepper came up behind Tony while he was on hold when the others weren't in earshot. 

He clenched his fist and shook his head. "Still with that bastard," Tony said.

Pepper nodded, even though she was disappointed she knew better than to make things worse. 

"Ant man and Falcon are checking in," Happy called. 

"I'll write it down," Pepper hurried back to the task board. She couldn’t let herself get distracted.


	13. Chapter 8: Infinity War (Part 1 of 3)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Protector of Mind Stone and Time Stone   
> Nova Corps, Guardians of Galaxy, Planet Earth's All Countries Armies, Avengers, Asgardians and Lady Sif, Nebula, Agents of Shield
> 
> Thanos and Thanos Armies  
> Thanos, Black Order, 50000 Leviathans, 1 Billion Chitauri, 1 Billion Chitauri Gorillas, 1 Billion Sakaarans, 3 Billion Outriders

**Planet Earth**

"Avengers base, come in, Avengers base," an unfamiliar voice contacted their radio. 

Tony walked over. "This is the Avengers base, Iron Man speaking."

"Hello, my name is Shuri, I'm a princess of the Wakanda kingdom. My people and I are ready to fight alongside you. We have information to share."

"Thank you Shuri, go ahead on the intel."

"There's currently a spaceship hovering just outside of the atmosphere. The readings coming back are for 6 billion organic life forms. The ship itself is huge, about the size of Asia and Europe combined."

Tony was speechless. He had never imagined that numbers would also be a problem; he thought his biggest worry would be the strength and power of their leader Thanos. 

"Copy," Tony finally said. "Please keep us updated as the situation continues. We cuttingly have the Time Stone under our supervision, however, we haven't yet isolated the Mind Stone."

"I have some good news for you then," Shuri said. "Wakanda gave shelter to the carrier of the Mind Stone, they're behind out barrier."

"That is good news, thank you."

"Oh," Shuri was startled. "It seems that they're splitting off. They're mobilizing into different pods, about 5 just deployed towards Earth. From my calculations, there are about 25 million soldiers aboard each ship."

"Then it sounds like it's time for me to make my way out to the fight. Stay safe Princess Shuri of Wakanda."

"You too Iron Man."

He hung up the connection and was about to rush out towards the group. "Shuri, if you get eyes on a blue alien named Nebula, please help get her somewhere safe, she was kidnapped by Thanos a few weeks ago. I've been trying to get her back ever since."

"Rodger that!"

Tony rushed out towards his team.

"We've got five incoming ships," Tony's suit was already on. "I thought we'd get some more time to prepare but let's hope we're ready. If you can fly you're coming up with me, except you Strange, you stay here to help mobilize non-transport heroes to land sites of whatever ships we can't kill in the air. Be ready for a fight if they get past us. Each ship is estimated to hold 25 million of these guys."

"Engage with targets and put them down as fast as possible," Captain America chimed in. 

"Let's go," Tony took off, headed for the ships. "The plan is to take out their engines, don't try and get into the ship, try and crash it so we'll kill as many as possible from the impact."

A chorus of understanding met Tony as he and Lady Sif attacked the first ship on different sides. The engines blew into pieces, hopefully sending jagged metal into the ship too, they had a long way to fall still. 

"You're not too bad at this Iron Man."

"It's an honor to hear that from a seasoned warrior such as yourself Lady Sif."

They flew to the next ships, but all four had their engines disabled by the other flight heroes. 

"Readings show more of them entering the atmosphere," Tony said. "Stay in your teams of two, we'll hit them as soon as they're through the atmosphere."

Everyone followed the plan, in the air things were going well. The duo teams were able to destroy the engines, sending the ships plummeting to the ground to explode and kill many of the occupants inside. Sif and Tony were working well together, the other teams included Wanda and Falcon, and The Wasp and Fraktur.

Down on earth though, it wasn't 25 million pilings out of the ship, but it wasn't a full fatality. Thanos’ troops were still flooding onto the battlegrounds and the Avengers were hurrying to meet them. That combined with the damage the ships were doing on impact, the Avengers on the ground were having a harder time. It didn't matter that most of the Avengers had remained on the ground to be sent out to dispatch those that remained unkilled. It was still a huge number of them who were left to be dealt with. 

Thankfully everyone who was there was incredibly skilled in combat. The Guardians of the Galaxy were able to rig up secondary explosions, the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. were storming inside pods to eliminate targets as they attempted to exit. The armies of earth were even cooperating with Strange and the other sorcerers to redistribute as needed. 

Hawkeye and Black Widow were inside one of the ships, doing their best to make their way towards the commanding officers in hope of eliminating them and causing some greater levels of confusion. 

Rocket was moving as fast as he could from ship to ship rewiring major components, he had one of three goals with every ship: take the exterior weapons offline, create a chemical reaction inside to hinder the armies inside or manufacture internal combustion. He never imagined the controls would be so entirely nonuniform that it would be so difficult from ship to ship. 

Tony looked up beyond the atmosphere, what he wouldn't do to be able to go and get her. 

**Meanwhile on Thanos's Warship Sanctuary II**

She knew it was now or never. Thanos would give his full attention to the forces he was deploying. He wouldn't care if she was free or not. She made her way out of the room she had been imprisoned in, Gamora had made sure to leave what she needed to escape. 

Her wounds would most likely leave marks, but they weren't severe enough to keep her from getting out of this place. She walked stealthily down the hall, crouching low so that no one would be able to see her. 

She took each turn slowly, checking the passageway before moving into it. But it seemed like she would be in luck after all most of Thanos' forces must have been in the pods already. She rushed down the hallway towards the exit hatch along the bottom of the ship. If she could just make it there she would stand a chance. 

She saw the door leading to the observation area. She unhinged it, a job usually for two people, and walked inside. She resealed the door and hit the red button, putting the launch locks in place so that it couldn't be opened again.

"Tony," she whispered into the vast openness of space in front of her. "I'm coming." She walked into the glass pod, usually, a ship was on the attached port, but it was gone, for whatever reason. She would have to find another way. She leaned her head against the glass, things had already been so difficult, she didn't imagine that it could be any harder. But she had persevered before, and she could do it again now. 

She opened her eyes, trying to think of a solution. She knew she was able to breathe inside of Earth's atmosphere, so if she could hold her breath in space, she might have a chance. 

She squinted as something was coming towards her at high speeds. Her eyes lit up as she realized it was one of Tony's Iron Man suits. She immediately hit the 'release' button and the glass opened up. She took a running start and jumped towards the metal. Gravity wasn't as kind in space as it was on earth, but slowly she fell towards the suit, and even better, the suit made its way towards her. She fell into the suit, allowing it to materialize around her body. 

"Oh my god," she sobbed. "Oh my god."

She propelled herself towards Earth's atmosphere, crying as she entered, officially escaping Thanos. Suddenly there were dozens of voices over the intercom, but she could hear her favorite clear as day. 

"Just push through the second ship first, readings indicate fewer hostiles." 

She'd love to see Tony, but first, she had to help him. 


	14. Chapter 8: Infinity War (Part 2 of 3)

**Planet Earth**

Nebula dove down through the air, she was headed straight for two of the ships that were making their way towards the earth. She flew directly through one engine, the suit holding up. She had remembered discussing the metals with Tony and knew the suit's metal would be stronger than the metal chosen for the engine blades in Thanos's deployment ships. 

After that engine was taken down she turned her suit and attention to another ship.

"F.R.I.D.A.Y.," she questioned the new AI. "How do I activate hand lasers?"

"Here are the controls," F.R.I.D.A.Y. highlighted the necessary movements. Nebula held her hands up, pointing them directly at the bottom of the next ship. She moved slowly but the beam began piercing through the bottom. As the hole began to grow members of the army started falling out of the sky. They'd never survive the fall down to the ground, especially not considering the heavier gravity of Earth compared to other planets. Nebula smiled with an unfamiliar satisfaction as she watched them fall.

"I didn't know you had multiple suit pilots," Nebula heard an unfamiliar female voice say.

"I don't," Tony flew over in front of her. "F.R.I.D.A.Y. override, pin Nebula, open the face hatch." 

The mask lifted off and Tony only stared a moment before his own mask was off. He looked at her, with his own eyes instead of the image generated by a machine.

"You're alive," he whispered.

"I am, I came home," she smiled.

"Oh my god," he flew forward and held her against him. She hugged him back, sighing and resting in the kind embrace. It had been far too long since she had been treated with such tenderness. 

"I love you," he said. "God I've been going crazy over these last few months Nebula. I love you, I love you," he tried to hold back his tears. "Thank you for coming back."

"She squeezed him tightly. "I love you too Tony, but we really need to get back to the fight. I can't wait to celebrate with you when this is all done though. So don't die on me, ok?" she leaned forwards and kissed him. 

"You've got a deal," he said. "F.R.I.D.A.Y. new user and code, User: Nebula, vocal recognition starting now," he nodded to her.

"Nebula," she spoke. 

'The whole sentence,' he mouthed to her. 

"This is Nebula in the second Iron Man suit."

"Voice recognition successful," F.R.I.D.A.Y. announced. 

"Perfect, program your own pin baby, I'll see you after the war." He smiled and headed off towards the fight happening in the streets too close to New York City. He used his lasers, shooting the aliens who made their way out of the ships. Captain America and Black Widow were fighting back to back in a hoard of the aliens. 

"Need a hand," he grinned and launched a small missile from his shoulder. It hit the right side of the clearing a path. 

"Thanks, Stark," Black Widow called up. 

"There's a large section of them gathering around the generators," Captain America yelled. 

"I'll make my way there and see if I can cut them off," Tony signaled. 

"I'll join you," Lady Sif announced. 

"I always appreciate having a badass Norse Goddess to help me with my attack missions."

She nodded and they landed at the base of the generators.

"They haven't broken in yet," Sif said. "What do you think they're trying to gain by coming in here?" she pondered. 

"I don't know," Tony said, trying to analyze the weakest point, and therefore the one most likely to break first. "But I also don't want to find out."

"We can agree on that," Sif said. 

As Tony jumped into action Sif followed. 

"The other side of this wall," Tony pointed. "I'm going to reinforce it from this site, try and thin out the aliens on the other side."

"You've got it," Sif said. She flew over the large wall and began axing the minions down one by one. 

"Hey Neb, can you hear me?" Tony tried radioing her.

"I can," she confirmed.

"Great, when do you think the big ugly grape is going to join?"

"He'll let his troops handle it until he loses faith in them. Then he'll land."

"Any guess as to when that will be?"

"He'll see try to wait and see which stone won't require his assistance to obtain since they're far away from one another. Once the first one is grabbed he'll most likely immediately go to the other location and secure the final stone. His main general Ebony Maw will go and get the other stone and then bring it to him."

"Got it, thanks babe, stay safe."

"You too," she flew overhead and he saw her carrying members from the other groups who had joined them but weren't fliers. They were able to get pinpoint shots off while she held them steady from overhead. She was so talented. 

But he had a role to play too. He froze the wall and reinforced it with some nitrous and other chemical compounds. Then he flew over, Sif was handling the hoard from overhead while others hand joined from the back. 

Tony flew over to another section under attack and began bashing them away. 

"I could use reinforcements to my coordinates," Tony radioed. 

"Guardians can head that direction," a voice answered.

"Don't let those things get in there," Rocket's voice butted in. "If they get in then they can mine energy back to their weapons or ships and everything I just shut down will be undone. This Guardian is continuing with the ships, and Groot is helping out, so it's just you and Gamora dipshit," Rocket finished.

"Copy that about holding the energy fields," Tony said.

"Copy that about me and the dipshit," Gamora radioed.

Nebula looked down for a moment, realizing that somehow, her sister had gotten back here. She had no idea how but her heart was soaring, she would have to introduce Tony after everything as over and ask Gamora what had happened. 

She kept fighting, refusing to give in to the hoards that kept coming through. The ships seemed endless, the dent they had made in the air didn't seem to matter. 

The warriors were starting to get weak with fatigue. 

"Sorcerers," a voice said. Most of the Avengers, old, new, and honorary, looked to where mythical portals were opening up. "I'd say it's about time we joined the battle," a man with an oddly old necklace appeared. 

Nebula's eyes widened as she looked at him.

"Tony, the man who just spoke. He's the one with the Time Stone."

"Roger that, hey Quill, you figure this out," Tony said and flew away. He ignored the Starlord as he blasted off, heading towards the new piece on the chessboard. There was a chance this guy had no idea what he was holding, and if that were true then Tony needed to inform him very quickly. 

Tony landed in front of the man. “Hey, Tony Stark, Iron Man,” he held his hand out. His nanobots retracted from around his hand so that he could properly shake. 

“Doctor Strange,” the sorcerer shook. 

**Planet Earth and Planet Earth’s Atmosphere**

"Princess Shuri," Okoye yelled as she chased after the monster who had broken into the lab of the princess. 

By the time she reached the previously sealed room the princess in question was standing over the charred body of an alien, one of her signature blasters on her arm and pointed down at the alien. 

"Guard the door," Shuri said. She took the glove off and turned to get back to work on the Mind Stone.

"Yes," Okoye said, breathing a sigh of relief.

"How is my brother?" Shuri asked.

"Maybe you could focus while you're taking one of the most powerful things in the universe out of my boyfriend's head," the twitchy woman across from Shuri said sharply.

"I can either get an update while working or I'll stop working and get the update," Shuri's hands stopped as she glared at the guest in her lab. "It's my brother, the king of our country. You choose, update while working, or stop working?"

"Update while working," the girl said quietly. 

"Your brother is fighting very bravely on the front lines. Of course, the Dora Milaje are fighting right alongside him but there are a lot of the creatures landing here. We are lucky we have the barrier so that we can control the number attacking."

"Any breaks yet?" Shuri asked, glancing over at her map.

"Only one."

"Should I fix it or wait it out?"

"We've been opening some holes to prevent more breaks and begin killing some of them so I think it is alright to leave it for now. I will touch base with his highness the king and get his opinion."

"Thank you," Shuri went back to work. Sweat dripping from her brow at the high pressure situation. If she could get this stone out then surely they would stand a better chance. 

“Get ready,” the commander said. He waited his whole body filled with tension as the ship landed. “Fire,” he yelled as soon as the aliens started pouring out of the hatch.

The same was happening all over New York. Nearly the entire US Army had been repositioned to respond to the disaster. Men and women were fighting aliens. The commanding officers couldn’t believe it. It didn’t seem real. 

“The US Navy has just arrived to give oceanic support,” someone reported. 

The orders were chaos everywhere. The battleships all had their guns pointed to the sky. 

“Great job commander,” Captain America himself walked up.

The commander was surprised at first but reached forwards to shake the hero’s hand.

“Would you mind if my colleagues and I restocked here?” he asked, a few other heroes waiting with empty weapons.

“By all means Captain America,” the commander saluted and everyone rushed forwards to grab what they needed.

A loud and menacing boom was heard through the air.

“What is that?” one of the newly appointed Avengers asked.

“That’s a Nuke Missile,” Steve said. 

“Tony! Sif, anyone! There’s a Nuke Missile, it’s headed away from our site.”

“Away?” Tony’s voice said. “F.R.I.D.A.Y. calculate the trajectory please,” Tony was hovering in the air. 

“Sir Nuke Missile is headed towards South America.”

“We need to hit it at a 32 degree angle to knock it off course into the ocean,” Tony said.

“Can we knock it up?” Warmachine asked.

“No, it’s too far into the atmosphere already,” Nebula said. “There’s not enough time.”

The three heroes raced after it, each in a suit designed by Tony, and each too slow. They watched, close enough to the blast that they were knocked back, as it decimated the land before them, There were all 422.5 million Deaths.


	15. Chapter 8: Infinity War (Part 3 of 3)

**Planet Earth**

“Tony,” Steve said over the intercom. “What happened, report.” 

Tony, Nebula, and Warmachine were flying over South America. They were high up in the air. All of them were silent. The amount of devastation that was left behind by the missile was indescribable. 

“Tony,” Steve said again, clearly panicked.

“F.R.I.D.A.Y.,” Tony’s voice was quieter than Nebula was used to hearing it. “Scan for any heartbeats, any signs of life,” Tony said.

“We’re scanning the area now Cap,” Warmachine reported. “We didn’t make it in time.”

Captain America didn’t reply. 

“What are the numbers?” Nebula asked, looking over at him.

“Nothing,” Tony said. “There’s nothing and no one left, All of the South America Population was killed Sadly.”

Nebula put her hand on Tony’s shoulder. “Come on, the fight isn’t over yet. And they need us.”

Tony stared down at the burning wreckage and nodded. He turned and followed her as fast as he could back to New York, back to defend against Thanos. 

**Planet Earth’s Atmosphere**

The ships were still coming, the sky forces were doing what they could to keep them at bay or at least have them damaged as they landed, not allowing a fully intact ship to strike the Earth. But it was exhausting work. Even with the help of the US military force assisting however they could, blowing ships out of the sky with their heavy duty weaponry. 

Many of the ships were still landing without damage. When the number coming in through the atmosphere had increased it was nearly impossible to keep up with.

**Planet Earth**

That wasn’t even considering whatever was happening in Wakanda which they couldn’t see. They got reports but only periodically, it didn’t sound like it was going well. With such a large number of forces, Thanos could easily spread them between the two locations and still drawn almost all of their Planet Earth’s resources. 

The ground forces were also engaging with the hostile aliens and holding their own well. Even as the aliens came pouring out of the ships when one of the heroes, all of them honorary Avengers now, engaged with them, the army was forced to give them their full attention. 

Even though the ships were pouring out combatants it was looking… manageable, certainly not good, there was far too much left to be successfully accomplished to make it be good, but it was seeming doable. 

“You know Cap I’m starting to think we might actually have a shot here,” Black Widow called from his side, shooting over his shoulder to eliminate an alien running towards his blindside.

“Crazy isn’t it? End of the world and we’re insane enough to think we might actually make it through,” he threw her a smile.

She smiled back. Rocket was racing from ship to ship still, breaking what he could. He knew that he had missed some, which he wasn’t pleased about, but he was starting to lose track of where they were landing among the ships he had already damaged. 

At that moment the Earth shook. Both Captain America and Black Widow were forced to their knees to stabilize themselves. Rocket was clutching onto the ship’s wiring to keep himself steady as he worked.

“That’s Thanos’ ship,” Nebula’s voice could be heard over the intercoms. “He and the Black Order travel in that ship! They’re much more deadly than the regular forces.”

“Oh good,” Rocket’s sarcastic voice was the first to respond. “Because I was really starting to get bored with the way things were going,” he huffed. 

“We’re heading back at top speeds Rogers,” Tony reported. “We should beat them to landing but someone should head there to intercept them.” 

Suddenly there was a wave of red going through the air. “What is-” someone started to ask but Sif yelled over them.

“He’s using the reality stone!”

“What is he going to do?” panicked voices questioned.

“Stay calm!” Captain America commanded. “We have to wait and see, there’s nothing else we can do,” he gritted his teeth and Natasha put her hand on his shoulder. 

A wave of purple energy pulsated out to mix with the red and washed over all of them, as far as they could see, even the ones flying, the light was expanding, engulfing the whole earth. 

The planes hovering above the ocean started to wobble, then one by one they fell from the sky, pilots ejecting as the monitors flashed red. 

“Avengers with flight! Head to the pilots, try and get them out of there!” Captain America said.

The Avengers acted quickly. Over the radio, Shuri was able to confirm the same thing happening across the world.

“He destroyed every aircraft that was striking him down,” Natasha looked at Steve. 

“So much for feeling confident,” Steve sighed.

“Hold onto hope,” she said. “It might be all we have left to fight with at the end.

“We’ve got one of those general’s landing towards the generators,” Sif said jarring everyone back to the business at hand. 

“You hold the rest of the hoard back,” Quill’s voice came in. “I’ll head towards this joke.” 

He rushed towards the member of the Black Order who had landed in front of him.

“Quill no!” Gamora said, running in front of him and blocking a powerful blow from Ebony. A cruel smile spread over his lips.

“We thought you dead, the first daughter of Thanos.”

“You all wish it was so easy to kill me,” she swung her leg up, connecting with his groin and then spinning to kick him backward. 

She held her strong form, sure to follow through, but a weapon blasted into her, pushing her back. 

“You are not superior in every way, outside of hand to hand combat it is easy to best you,” Proxima said.

“Because you fight like a coward,” Gamora got to her feet. 

“Shall we?” Ebony joined Proxima.

“Oh yes, best of luck to you dearest,” Proxima smiled. 

Ebony rushed Quill, shoving him much farther from the fight, making it impossible for Gamora to return to his aid again. 

She wanted to hurry after him but she was locked in her own fight. Proxima shot at her again and again, the gun having a rapid reload that Proxima took advantage of masterfully. It was everything in Gamora’s power just to stay out of the way of the blast. 

Suddenly there were two extra echoes of gunfire that Gamora hadn’t been expecting. 

Gamora stared at Proxima and both of them seemed surprised as navy blood slid down Proxima’s arm.

“I’m here to even up the combat styles a little bit,” Natasha smirked, taking a few more shots. She hit Proxima in the side twice as well. Proxima turned the guns on her quickly. The short reload speed giving her an advantage. Luckily Natasha was skilled in dodging as well, and as she evaded the attacks Gamora began closing the distance between her and Proxima. 

Proxima whipped towards her suddenly, holding the gun almost against Gamora’s skin. Gamora’s eyes widened as she realized she wouldn’t be able to dodge the attack. 

Suddenly something slammed into Proxima. It sent her flying backward, hitting her so hard blood spurted from her mouth. 

“Are you alright sis?” Nebula landed beside Gamora. 

“Nebula,” Gamora said softly. “I’m so glad that you’re alright, I’m so sorry I wasn’t able to free you from him before we left,” she hugged her sister. 

“It’s alright. I’m sorry he hurt you.”

“Those are his sins, not yours.”

“Ladies, I hate to ruin the moment but there’s a psycho relative of yours charging at us again,” Natasha said. She rushed over to join the other two women. 

Meanwhile, Quill was having too much fun fighting Ebony. The general of the Black Order seemed to be struggling far more than he would have expected against the erratic and unpredictable fighting style that Quill employed. 

The human was singing and shooting to a beat that Ebony was unfamiliar with. His dodges and spins out of the way seemed more like a choreographed dance than anything else. 

He was getting Ebony on the ropes, backing him into a corner where he was going to be forced into defeat. Ebony gritted his teeth as Quill kept having the time of his life.

“Calm down, you look a little uptight,” Quill said, shooting at Ebony’s feet and making him jump in the air to dodge. 

Ebony’s face was shining with rage as he looked at the filthy human. 

“Maw,” Thanos was suddenly standing behind him. “Why do you let worthless human ridicule you so?”

“Sire,” Ebony lowered his head as Thanos went by. “I can handle this pest for you, truly. He is not worth your time,” Ebony said.

“I know that,” Thanos walked towards Quill, not flinching at all as Quill shot him again and again. Quill felt dread building up inside of him. 

“He’s not the one that I’m interested in hurting,” Thanos said. He reached Quill and grabbed him by his neck as he kept walking forwards. Quill was slamming his hand and then a knife down onto the Titan’s wrist, but nothing seemed to phase him. Even as purple blood ran down his unfamiliar flesh he didn’t flinch. 

“You don’t have to worry,” Thanos said. “It won’t hurt for much longer. Proxima,” Thanos tightened his fist, and Quill stopped moving, his body limp. The Titan didn’t seem to have any regard for the dead body he was now carrying. 

Proxima was panting, being cornered by the three members of the Avengers. 

“See if this thing does you any good,” Thanos took the corpse of the man his daughter had loved and tossed it at Proxima’s feet. 

Gamora instantly felt grief and dizziness wash over her. She stumbled, falling to her knees. 

“Peter!” she screamed. “Peter no! Don’t do this please,” she wailed. “What have you done?” Gamora shouted. 

She turned her attention towards Thanos. Tears were streaking down her cheeks as she looked at him. 

“Nothing you didn’t deserve, nothing you didn’t need,” he said. 

“You’re a monster,” Gamora got up to attack him but he had already turned his back on her. He was walking towards where the sorcerer was. He was fighting, rather impressively, especially compared to the others that his soldiers were fighting against. Perhaps he should have trained them better, but it was all a little late for that now. 

Gamora was trying to fight with him, but she was to grief stricken to really put up anything that Thanos felt the need to respond to. She was messy, sloppy. She was hurting, that pain made her weak, but he would make her strong. If he had to find everyone on this planet that she felt affection for and end them, he would make her strong. 

Without Gamora the other two were having a harder time fighting Proxima back. Nebula was gaining ground, but she was distracted, worried that at any moment Thanos would decide to turn and strike Gamora for what she was doing. 

But Thanos seemed to have no interest in her. “Maw, Proxima, go to Wakanda and retrieve the Mind Stone. I have my eyes set on the Time Stone, and it won’t be getting away.”

Thanos lunged at the sorcerer who was in control of his Time Stone. Gamora wasn’t so much fighting against him as she was following him and crying. The sorcerer never saw the hit coming. The emperor of the new world was closing in. For the first time in a long time, Thanos felt joy. As he reached for the stone around the stranger’s neck, he smiled.


	16. Final Chapter (Good Outcome for Good Ending)

**Planet Earth**  
Corvus and Cull were landing on the outskirts of the battle with The Avengers. Thanos took note of them. 

The sorcerer's body laid crumpled at his feet, whether he was dead or alive was a problem for him, not Thanos. Thanos put the Time Stone into his glove. He could feel the power growing, he would have his destiny soon enough. 

He made his way towards Corvus and Cull. He made note of their ship. It seemed to be in good condition. The brothers waved to him and grinned widely holding up the final piece he needed. He grinned, a deep satisfaction growing inside of him. 

"You've done well," he said as he approached them. He reached for the stone as he felt the air electrify around him. 

He turned and found himself face to face with an unknown adversary. 

"You appear to be Asgardian," he said looking at the woman standing before him in full Nobel armor.

"I am," she sneered at him.

"Then I will reunite you with your king very soon," he quirked his lip up. He took the mind stone from Corvus and put it into his glove. 

The power surge was intoxicating, it even made his vision blurry for a moment. He smiled, feeling it radiate through him. He lifted his hand, turning to stare at his completed dream, it was finally becoming a reality.

He gasped as he felt a sudden and intense pressure on his chest. He felt warm copper liquid making its way into his mouth. He coughed it up. It took him a moment to realize it was his blood. 

There was suddenly a pressure on his back, he felt someone's hand on his forehead. 

"Pick a nice dream father," it was Nebula's voice. "It will be your last." 

He didn't feel the blade of her weapon sliced across his skin. It was a merciful blade, so sharp that it couldn't be felt. As his head fell off Nebula jumped from his shoulders. The rest of the army crumpled as he fell. 

Black Widow and Captain America worked together to get the better of Corvus and Cull. Black Widow had her wire guns which she used to fasten both Corvus and Cull’s legs together. While the senior order members were dealing with their incapacitation Captain America had rushed over and used his shield to knock both of them out. Black Widow grabbed her gun and cocked it, aiming at the brother’s skulls. 

Tony had jumped into the fight with Proxima as soon as Nebula had left it to go after Thanos. His strikes were perfectly designed to both incapacitate and disorient. Proxima could hardly get her eyes to work right. Tony used flash grenades, strobe lights, anything he could to blind the warrior and keep her from seeing him as she tried to fight back. But it was pointless, soon enough head her in a chokehold. The pressure the metal could place onto her neck was immense. She’d never stand a chance. 

Gamora had been ruthless with Ebony. With Peter killed before her very eyes she had so much pain and hurt inside of her. And she focused all of it onto Ebony. He couldn’t dodge her blows, she was too fast. They may have both been trained by Thanos but she had always been the superior fighter. She put him in his place, ripping at his body with her weapons, butting him open and leaving him to beg for mercy. But he would find none in her eyes. She raised her blade to finish him off, hoping Proxima was watching. 

Nebula had killed her own father. His body laid in a heap next to her. 

She felt herself shaking, her own father. He'd cared for her for so many years. Yes, he had hurt her too. He had taken her apart, turned her against her sister. He had done many bad things, but he was the only father she had ever known. 

And now, not only was he dead, but he was dead by her hand. 

She tried not to wipe at the tears, she thought maybe if she didn't then no one would notice. 

"You are a strong warrior," Sif approached her and put a hand on her shoulder. "Thanks to your strength the entire galaxy, every galaxy, is safe." 

Nebula didn't feel much better as the warrior squeezed her shoulder. 

Sif released her and knelt down to pick up the gauntlet from Thanos's inanimate body. 

Nebula almost wanted to protest but she didn't. 

Tony walked over and pulled her into his arms. His suit was already off, the one she was in shrunk to a bracelet around her wrist as he touched her. When she hit his chest she started to cry more. 

He held her close and kissed the top of her head. 

"I missed you," he said. "I'm so sorry that you're hurting."

She didn't have the words so she just kept crying. 

It wasn't until another voice spoke that she was pulled out of the sorrow she was drowning in.

"Traitor," a voice hissed. 

Nebula turned in Tony's arms to see Proxima in cuffs and being dragged away by people who's uniforms said 'Nova' on them. 

"I thought my siblings were dead," Nebula said, turning to look at Tony, knowing that he had been the one fighting Proxima.

"They were supposed to be," Tony glared at the other heroes, he didn't want to call them that right now, they didn't feel like heroes.

"But these guys stepped in before we could kill them, though your sister did quite a number to Ebony, we don't know if he'll make it to the trial."

"Trial?" Nebula asked.

"Oh ya, that's what they're advocating for. A trial to decide if they deserve to die for aiding Thanos."

"We told you you can kill them all if you'd like," the leader sneered at Tony. 

Nebula felt Tony's grip on her tighten and she looked up at him in confusion.

"I already told you, she's on our side. She killed Thanos, or did you just conveniently forget that?"

"Nebula and Gamora still have past crimes (Warcrines, Massacres, Murders, Assassinations, Kidnapping) sisters should answer for," he took a menacing step towards them. 

Steve and Natasha were suddenly in front of them. 

"You'll kindly leave our planet now," Natasha said. "We gave you the prisoners you requested, and you won't take any more. Our world has to recover from the devastation that we just underwent. You didn't have to host the final battle on your home planet, so be respectful and give us the space to help ours recover."

The man held her gaze for a moment and then finally turned around and left. The Nova Corp boarded their spacecraft and then let it carry them off, their prisoners in hand.

"Will we know what they decide?" Nebula asked.

"Yes, we have their contact information, they're going to transmit the trial," Steve answered.

"That's good," Nebula said.

"We'll be here for you," Natasha turned to her and squeezed her hands in hers. "I know how hard all of this must be, and on top of that being kidnapped for so long. I'm so sorry we couldn't stop it. We've all been trying to find you. Tony hasn't stopped since it happened."

"Thank you," Nebula smiled. "It is good to be somewhere that feels safe once again," she nodded. Then she turned to Tony. "Thank you for looking for me."

"Spent my whole life doing it cutie, what kind of man would I be if I stopped after finally finding you the first time?"

She smiled and leaned up to kiss him. 

"Well what's happening over here?" she heard a familiar voice and turned, cutting the kiss much shorter than Tony wanted. 

"Gamora," she smiled upon seeing her sister. "How I missed you, I thought you were dead." Nebula pulled out of Tony's arms and hurried over to her sister. She hugged her tightly and Gamora returned the embrace just as fondly. 

"I was so worried about you when I left. I did die, that's the only way that Thanos could have gotten the Soul Stone. You have to sacrifice someone that you love."

"He killed you?" Nebula said, her face conveying the horror she felt.

"He did, he threw me from a cliff. But after he got the Soul Stone he left. I woke up with a stranger. He had a long cape on and he called himself Dr. Strange. He said that he opened a portal to me and used the Time Stone to revive me. Then he brought me with him through the portal to Planet Earth, where he said he would need my help to stop father." 

"I'm so thankful to him," Nebula smiled, pulling her sister into her embrace again.

"So am I. I look forward to making much happier memories with you Nebula."

"Will you stay here Gamora?"

"On Planer Earth?" Gamora seemed surprised.

"Oh yes, I must introduce you." Nebula smiled and pulled her sister closer to where Tony was standing, watching, being sure that he wouldn't interrupt. "This is Tony, Tony Stark is my Fiance," Nebula said. "I met him when I crash landed on Earth. He took care of me, and we fell in love," she smiled. 

Tony beamed back at her. "Your sister is beautiful," he told Gamora. "Inside and out, I can't imagine my life without her. Thank you for what you did to bring her back to me."

Gamora nodded at him. 

"Feel free to come to stay with us," Tony extended his hand. "We want you to be among family."

Gamora was shocked but thankful. She took his hand and smiled. 

2 Days later the news was broadcast worldwide. There had been over 1 Billion deaths that occurred on planet Earth in the fight for Our Galaxy. Some fatalities had been aliens, but over 1.1 Billion had been humans. All of South America had been lost, it was decimated, most likely unable to even look towards rehabilitation for Hundred years, Rest died in War. 

Steve had made it a mission for the Avengers to go to the area and do what they could in order to assist in the process.

**Planet Xandar**

Weeks later, after the worldwide announcement the Avengers were granted admittance to the galaxy wide broadcast of the trial for the Black Order (Ebony Maw, Proxima Midnight, Corvus Glaive, Cull Obsidian) It lasted for almost a month, but eventually every member was found guilty of their crimes.

"The Nova Corp just wanted to kill them themselves and didn't have the strength to do it on the battlefield," Tony complained.

"You don't know that," Nebula said. "Maybe they really wanted to give them a chance."

No one wanted to argue with her, they knew that even if they were evil, the Black Order had been Nebula's family. It made sense that she would want to believe there was a chance they might have been redeemed. 

"We don't have to watch the executions if you don't want to," Tony told her.

"It's fine," she said, but still reached for his hand. She knew that all of the other Avengers had gathered at his house to watch, to make sure the threat that had taken so many of their friends and citizens was eliminated without question. 

Each member of the Black Order was sent into the space vacuum with no protective gear, their deaths were quick, but likely not painless. It was the best Nebula could likely have hoped for. 

She leaned against Tony.

He turned to her. "Hey beautiful, got something on your mind?"

"I'm just happy to be home," she whispered.

"I'm so happy to have you home to Nebula." He kissed her, rubbing his thumb gently along her cheek. "It felt so empty and cold without you. It feels warm again like it's perfect."

"It does feel a little perfect now doesn't it?" she smiled and kissed him softly. They were in a corner towards the back of the room so while everyone else talked around them, they just breathed each other in, happy to finally be reunited. 


	17. Good Ending

**1 Year Later since Thanos Death**  
The president of The United States stood at a podium in front of the White House.His hands were on both sides and he was looking out at the many people gathered for the speech, among the crowd was Nebula, Tony Stark, Gamora, Natasha Romanoff, and Steve Rogers, Bruce Banner, Clint Barton, Laura Barton, Cooper Barton, Lila Barton, Nathaniel Barton, Pepper Potts, Happy Hogan, Thaddeus Ross, Everett Ross, Sharon Carter, Lady Sif, Wanda Maximoff, James Rhodes, Sam Wilson, Peter Parker, Rocket Raccoon, Okoye, Scott Lang, Nick Fury, Maria Hill, Helen Cho, Phil Coulson, T'Challa, Shuri, Ramonda, Stephen Strange, Wong, Drax the Destroyer, Groot, Mantis, Ayo, M'Baku, Valkyrie, Korg, Miek, Aragorn, Hope van Dyne, Hank Pym, Janet van Dyne, Kraglin Obfonteri, Phil Coulson's Shield Team.They all stared in anticipation as the president began his speech. 

"It is with great honor and pride that I can share with this great and always progressing country that today the United Nations has voted to pass legislation which allows Global Citizenship for all alien species.Additionally, they have granted aliens the same status of rights as human beings.So now, we will all be planetary citizens, protected under the same laws, rights, and kindness. 

"In the next large piece of news The United States is among the first ten countries to immediately adopt that movement, and put our own legislation into place.I have been working tirelessly with the great men and women in Congress and the House to ensure that on the day it was passed in the United Nations, we would be ready with our own bills and laws to grant alien rights.

"Some of the most important parts of these laws grant aliens the right to own property and businesses, to pursue marriage with whomsoever they find love with, and all other rights guaranteed by our constitution."

A ruckus of applause erupted across the gathering area as the President spoke.Nebula was pulled into Tony's arms as he kissed her passionately. 

"We can finally get married Tony," she smiled.

"It only took a year after saving the world," he joked. 

"It was a year we could spend planning our wedding," she smiled.

"And we did," he hugged her tighter. 

Over the next two weeks as Nebula and her bridesmaids prepared for the ceremony many marches and protests broke out around the country to protest the progressive movement.Captain America worked with the Avengers and US Police to protect areas with high alien residents. 

Nebula and Tony did their part too, going out and patrolling, giving the Avengers hotline number to any and all businesses who had complied with the Alien Inclusion Acts. 

The gratitude had been wonderful, even if the riots had been terrifying. 

Tony had feared for both Nebula and Gamora on several occasions, wanting to hover, or insist that they go home, but knowing that wouldn't solve any problems long term. 

When they arrived home after one of the riot patrols Nebula fell into his arms. 

"Why is it like this?" she whispered. 

He kissed her head."Humans are raised prejudiced.I wish it wasn't that way, I wish they could see how wonderful you are.But, sadly, as a race, we've failed in many ways.I'm doing my best to change the world for you though," he smiled looking into her eyes.She leaned forwards and kissed him. 

"I appreciate that, but the world isn't yours to save anymore," she smiled."I just want you to focus on being happy with me now, leave the rest to the other heroes."

"Deal," he grinned and pulled her into his arms, pushing her clothes off her body. 

He stared into her eyes while holding her hands.She was in a brilliant golden dress, a tradition from her own home planet.Her bridesmaids, Natasha, Sharon, Gamora, Pepper and Maria were all in white, to incorporate the earthly tradition in some way. 

Tony had been all too happy to wear a red suit with white detailing, something also customary from her homeworld.

"Are you sure?" she had asked him when they had ordered the custom garments.

"I'm over the moon to have something from your heritage to incorporate into the wedding."

Standing and staring back at him, she had been glad that he had been so willing because he looked incredible, and the rest of the wedding decorations in the brilliant and regal red and gold were equally enticing.

"I love you," he whispered as the pastor was talking to them.

She shushed him but smiled, a slight blush appearing on her blue skin.They kept eye contact as they dedicated their lives to one another.Tony gripped her hands firmly, mouthing I love you to her instead.She smiled and mouthed it back to him. 

When it was time for the vows he was paying an overzealous amount of attention.He had always been a genius but he was worried he would mess something up.But he did manage to repeat the words given to him and promise to love her through good times and bad, in sickness and health until the end of time. 

Then it was her turn and he couldn't take his eyes off of her as the surreal moment of her wanting him back really began sinking in. 

"You may now kiss the bride," Tony heard.He couldn't wait.He grabbed her by her waist and pulled her to him.He kissed her passionately, ignoring the other noise coming from the crowd and the groomsmen.He didn't want to let her go, but eventually, he had to.

They moved to their reception and the hall was decorated in their wedding colors as well.They were introduced as Tony and Nebula Stark for the first time and went to the head table to sit and look out over all of their friends, family, and loved ones who were gathered to celebrate with them. 

"Congratulations Mrs. Stark," he whispered as their annoying photographer buzzed around their table. 

"Congratulations to you too my wonderful new husband," Nebula kissed him gently. 

He couldn't keep the smile off of his face as he squeezed her hand under the table. 

Tony stole kisses throughout the night, held her close during their first dance, and even resisted the urge to smash some of the cake in her face when it was time to feed each other. 

When the wedding was finally over, they were both exhausted, opting to fall asleep in each other's arms and leave the usual wedding night activities to be handled the next morning, when there was more energy available for them. 

**2 Year Later since Thanos Death**  
"Gamora," Tony yelled in the spacious home that Nebula, he, and Gamora lived in."Gamora it's time to go!" Tony yelled again."Hang in there baby, it's going to be fine."

"I really feel that way when you scream in my ear," she sucked in a deep breath again as another contraction hit.She held her swollen belly as she clutched Tony's hand. 

"Sorry, sorry," he whispered.He grabbed their go bag and headed towards the front door.Gamora was waiting by the door holding it open. 

"I got Happy up," Gamora said."You doing alright sis?" she smiled.

"I would be better if my stomach wasn't cramping up so bad," she winced.

"It's for the beautiful babies," Gamora patted her shoulder."Hang in there."

Gamora still remembered sitting on the large Stark family couch nine months ago.She had no idea what the news was going to be, but just about everyone who was important to Nebula and Tony was in attendance.They sat excitedly as Nebula clutched Tony's hand. 

"We have some news," she said.She seemed a bit nervous, which Gamora thought was unusual.Though, Gamora had been glad that her sister had begun feeling comfortable enough with herself and her place in the world that she was showing her emotions again.Gamora couldn't remember the last time it had happened before Tony. 

"We're expecting a baby," Nebula said. 

Gamora's mouth had dropped open, several other Avengers stared in stunned silence.Steve was the first to jump up, hugging both members of the couple in his strong arms. 

"Congratulations," he smiles."What a wonderful thing for both of you."

"Thanks," Tony smiled at him.

Gamora was the next on her feet, pulling Nebula into her arms."You'll make a wonderful mother," she smiled.

"I hope so," Nebula whispered.She seemed to have doubt in her eyes.Gamora squeezed her shoulders. 

"I know so," Gamora said."You are a wonderful and caring person and you deserve nice things.You will be a good mother, you will be better then what either of us had in any case," Gamora smiled. 

Nebula smiled back at her, "thank you," she said. 

Now Gamora was in the passenger seat of a car that was making its way towards the closest hospital with priority status. 

When they arrived a team of doctors and nurses appeared at the doorways.Nebula was quickly helped into a wheelchair and then escorted to a private room.Tony didn't leave her side for a second of it, though everyone else who arrived to support, politely waited just outside the room. 

Tony stepped out smiling a few hours later. 

Everyone stood and looked at him excitedly."In a few minutes, you'll all get to meet Maria Collins Carbonell Jr Stark, Nebula Jr Stark, and Gamora Stark.We named the first baby girl Maria Collins Carbonell after my mother,” he smiled fondly thinking of her.“Then Nebula of course after the mother of the children herself.My precious wife and the most wonderful woman I have ever met, no offense to those of you here,” he grinned and they all rolled their eyes.“And then Nebula picked Gamora, after the sister that she always wanted to be closer to." 

Gamora smiled and walked up, being the first one to pull Tony into a tight embrace.“They’re all beautiful names.”

He laughed.“The staff has seemed a little freaked out. The gene theory definitely holds true even for interspecies genetics.So they’re a sky blue in skin tone, Maria Collins Carbonell has Nebula’s black eyes, Nebula has brown almost hazel eyes and then Gamora has a golden eye color that I’m assuming must be recessive on Nebula’s side.They’re beautiful though.”

“The hospital staff has been good to you though?” Natasha asked, her voice sharp.

“Oh ya, initial freakouts aside, they’ve been great,” he smiled.“The girls are great too,” he took a deep breath and smiled gladly.“It’s all been great.”

The hospital staff took longer doing check ups for the human and luphomoid hybrid babies then they would typically take, but they weren’t well versed on what differences to look for.Even though it meant Nebula had to wait longer to hold the triplets she and Tony both figured that more time checking for health and well-being could only be a good thing.

The cheering squad went into the room to congratulate them both while they waited.Everyone was impatient to meet the babies but they all needed to be washed, cared for, and given time with their mother to bond.But eventually, the three Stark triplets made it out to the waiting room to meet their aunts and uncles. 

**5 Year Later**  
Neither Tony nor Nebula were in a hurry to get rid of Gamora.She had been living in their guest room comfortably since defeating Thanos many years ago.They both enjoyed her company and loved having her around. 

But they were just as happy for her when she did move out so that she could live with her serious boyfriend, soon to be financed as Tony had helped him pick out a ring.The couple had recently welcomed the latest pair of hybrid babies into the world, two twins, both beautiful and healthy. 

Gamora was still beaming and walking around with them in her arms constantly. 

The Stark girls were over the moon to have little cousins to look forward to, though Tony had to explain that it would be a little while until they were old enough to play. 

But Nebula and Tony both helped Gamora pack so that she could move, not too far away thankfully. 

She gave them a last big hug and then went to the car with her boyfriend, each of them carrying one of their bundles of joy. 

Tony pulled Nebula into his arms as they watched the car pull out of his gates.He kissed his wife's cheek and whispered in her ear.


	18. Final Chapter (Bad Outcome for Bad Ending)

Corvus and Cull were landing towards the edge of the fight. Thanos took note of them and headed in their direction. 

"Look, look," they both grinned in unison. They pushed the Mind Stone towards him. 

He smiled in approval and reached forwards to take it into his grasp.

"You've done well," he noted their accomplishments. "How was the battle?"

"The people of Wakanda still fight but the stone is ours. We got on our ship as soon as we had secured it so that we would not risk them finding a way to recapture it."

"Very good," he nodded in approval. "We will end things quickly so that the rest of our armies are spared."

"Where can we assist in the fighting?"

"That won't be necessary," Thanos confirmed. He waved his glove, activating the mind stone and the reality stone, his soldiers knew to freeze, no longer knowing what was real and what was not, and not wanting to risk the success of the mission.

The Avengers however were not aware of the change of power that had happened. They did not know that Thanos could manipulate the space around him. 

He showed them a world where the Black Order retreated, one where the ships were rushed by his army. One by one smiles began appearing on their faces, looks of relief. 

Then they cheered. One man in particular seemed a bit confused, and he was the man that Thanos was after. 

He made his way towards the sorcerer and since the sorcerer's current reality didn't hold a vision of Thanos, the sorcerer didn't resist. 

Thanos grabbed the Time Stone, and everyone realized it too late. 

He put it into his glove and he dropped the other illusion. 

Most of The Avengers looked visibly startled to see that Thanos' army was still around. And while some began putting it together, others still looked utterly lost. 

"To a better world," Thanos raised his hand.

"A better world," his army fell to their knees around him. 

He snapped, allowing it to be completely random, except for two people, for his two daughters. He could not risk their lives again. He would not risk their lives again. 

The snap reverberated around the entire galaxy, wiping it clean, giving it the state of being it deserved. 

The radiation coming off of the glove was intense, and painful. But Thanos had known that sacrifice would be made. 

Corvus and Cull rushed forwards towards him. "Are you alright?" Corvus asked. 

"Get me to the ship," Thanos panted.

"Of course, right away."

"And you," Thanos slid his eyes over towards Cull. 

"Take another member of The Black Order and bring Nebula and Gamora to the ship as well. 

His hand twinged as he used the mind stone again but he knew that his order would be willing to knock them out and he didn't want that. Now that his goal had been accomplished, he wanted things to go as easily as possible. So he put them to sleep. 

He could hear screaming all around him as the different Avengers mourned comrades who had disappeared. His daughter Nebula was crying for the man she had escaped to get back to, it was good that she was falling asleep then, random chance was not always kind, and he would not want her to suffer.

Nebula was fighting with Proxima when suddenly she stood still. Her eyebrows knitted together as she saw the Black Order taken out. Vision arrived on the scene, he and Wanda blasting each of the order members and they crumbled in front of her. 

Nebula felt a hesitant smile spread over her lips. 

Tony flew down in front of her and landed. His hands were instantly on the sides of her helmet and he lifted it off. His own helmet was dissolving away.

“Hey you,” he smiled, his metallic thumb stroked her cheek as he stared into her eyes.

“Hey yourself,” she leaned up on her tip toes and kissed him. He wrapped his arms around her and held her close. 

“I love you so much,” he whispered as their lips parted. “I dreamed every night of seeing you again. I’m so glad we made it to this moment.” He nuzzled her nose with his and she smiled, closing her eyes and settling into a happiness she’d never known before. 

“I love you too,” she whispered.

“Is it over?” Tony and Nebula turned to see Happy and Pepper rushing over to them. 

“It is,” Nebula laughed, leaning more onto Tony, refusing to let him go. 

“We won?” Pepper asked, tears sliding down her cheeks.

“It would appear that way,” Tony laughed as well. 

“We did it!” Rhodey screamed in triumph as he landed beside the couple. He wrapped his arms around the two of them and lifted them. 

Everyone was laughing and it felt incredible. Nebula was so happy that she escaped it all, she was so happy to be back with these people she’d missed. Every fight that she had gone through had been worth it. 

“We’re all together again,” she smiled.

Pepper nudged Tony away, coming up and sliding her arms around Nebula.

“We’ve all been so worried about you,” she whispered. “Are you doing alright?”

“I am ok,” Nebula smiled, wrapping her arms around the other woman. “I have been lonely, but I have survived.”

“We all missed you so much Nebula. Tony was going crazy, he built a spaceship that could travel insanely fast just to try and search every corner of the galaxy for you.” Tony looked away as Pepper ratted him out. Honestly he was kind of hoping that little detail could be omitted. 

All around them the others cheered, but then, something terrible happened. 

The happy group of five felt their stomachs drop. One second they were standing staring at one another with huge goofy smiles on their faces, and the next moment those smiles were fading away to be replaced with something much more sinister. A much more worried expression than the celebratory one held only a moment ago. 

“What’s happening?” Pepper asked, alarmed.

Tony pulled Nebula into his arms tightly. “What did we do wrong?” he asked.

“People, people are vanishing!” Rhodey screamed.

“How?” Tony gritted his teeth. “Thanos never got the Time Stone, he shouldn’t have had the power.”

“Who killed him?” Nebula asked with wide eyes as she looked up at Tony.

“I, I have no idea.” He opened up his communication. “Can I get a confirmed kill on Thanos,” he said into the radio. It was chaos, everyone talking, everyone screaming. He couldn’t hear anything, let alone a reply. 

“Avengers,” he said angrily into the com. “I need a confirmed kill on Thanos.”

“We don’t have one,” Steve’s voice finally came through. “It, Tony I don’t think this is real, I don’t know how he’s doing it, but I think we lost.”

Tony cursed. “How,” he muttered just so he and the others around him could hear. “How did we mess it up? What did we miss?”

“There has to be something,” Nebula said, her arms tightly woven around him.

His heart stopped. “The Reality Stone, or The Mind Stone. Either one of them could have fooled us. It would have been easy, all Thanos would have had to do would be to is enact their power and we would have been lured into not fighting back.”

“He got the last stone,” Nebula sobbed. “I, I can’t believe this.” 

Tony clutched her, kissing the top of her head. He glanced around at the four people that he loved the most in the word, his heart beating rapidly. Not them, not them, not them. He wouldn’t be able to function. Not them. 

He felt a strange sensation suddenly. 

He looked down. It wasn’t them, it was him. 

“Baby,” Tony said, his heart pounding as he tilted her head up to stare into her eyes one last time. “I love you.”

“Tony?” she asked, clearly confused. Then she looked down and her eyes bulged. 

“Tony, please don’t go,” she cried. Her tears were streaming down her cheeks and she couldn’t stop them. 

“Oh God,” Happy said. “Boss, no, I, not like this.”

“Tony,” Pepper covered her mouth and turned into Rhodey’s arms.

“My guy,” Rhodey was already crying. “No, no man. Don’t, don’t do this to us. Don’t do this to your girl.” 

The echo of the snap finally reverberated in the space, shattering the illusion that had offered any comfort to those who were about to die. Tony and Nebula held each other close, refusing to let go. 

But then he had sighed, “If it had to be one of us, I’m glad it was me.” He kissed her, tenderly, stroking his thumb along her face as he did. 

“Don’t wait up ok? It’s alright, really. I love you so much, but I don’t want you to think about me and be sad forever. Keep living, keep doing things that make you happy. And if you find someone else, that’s great.” He kissed her again and she sobbed.

“I don’t want to find someone else Tony. I want you. I don’t want you to leave me,” she hugged him tightly as he started disappearing. 

“I’m sorry guys, sorry I let you down. Please look after her for me, stay a family. Pepper make sure the company goes into your care, make sure Happy still has a job. Look after Rhodey too, and make sure Cap has someone.” 

He looked down at Nebula again, not able to spare anymore of their precious time together on the others. He loved them, but she was his everything. 

“It’ll be alright, you’re strong so-” and then he was gone. 

A casualty to her father’s war. She fell to her knees, she had been leaning on him to keep herself up but now he was gone.

“No,” she whispered. “I, I fought so many things to get back to you. Don’t leave me now. She sobbed, burying her face in her hands. 

Pepper managed to stand without leaning on Rhodey. She moved forwards and pulled her friend into her arms as they both cried. She tried to say something comforting but it was impossible to think of anything, and even harder to understand the words choked out by sobs. 

“We love you,” she muttered over and over again. 

Happy and Rhodey came up next to the two crying women and put a hand on each of their shoulders. Happy was trying to find something to say but he just kept wiping his nose on his sleeve. He couldn’t think of anything except of how good Tony had been to him for all these years, and how he’d miss him. 

“We’ll make it through,” Rhodey said, though he sounded very choked up. “Somehow or another, together, we’ll make it through.”

The sorcerer who he had taken the stone from was also gone, a tragedy of randomness as well. The woman who had begun snapping his ships in half with an intense power that he hadn't seen anywhere else in the universe had disappeared as well. 

A rusty old van was left, with no one around it, and no one to realize that the team from inside of it was gone. The large green monster who had attacked many of his ships was also nowhere to be seen. It seemed that several of his largest threats had been eliminated by the randomness of the universe. Which was just another sign that the universe was on his side and wanted to be cleansed and released from the state that life forms around the galaxy had put it into. 

"We're on the main ship now," Corvus stated.

"Thank you, to my room will be fine. Then have them set a course for Garden."

"Of course," Corvus agreed. "We're just waiting for your daughters and the rest of the order to board the ship."

"Yes, make sure that happens, do not allow any more casualties from our side. Communicate with the fighters in Wakanda that they should retreat to their ships and set course for Garden, or any other place they would find their fulfillment."

"You are so kind to us," Corvus smiled. "I am glad that you were able to see your goal become a reality." 

Corvus made it to Thanos' room on the ship and laid him down into the bed. He was torn on if he should take the glove off of his hand or not. After all it hardly looked comfortable, or for that matter healthy, but he didn't know the extent of the wounds beneath, and he wouldn't want someone else to attempt to take it either. 

Ultimately he left the glove on, knowing it would be more protected if it were on Thanos' imposing figure. 

"Why have we been brought here?" Gamora was resisting, even in her groggy state it seemed that she was giving Ebony Maw some trouble.

"Need a hand?" Corvus quirked an eyebrow at him.

"Nothing you could assist with," Ebony glared. 

It was mostly true that The Black Order operated as a tightly knit unit, but Ebony and Corvus were an exception, Ebony was the leader of The Black Order, answering only to Thanos, but Corvus always wanted the title for himself. It led to some tensions as well as Corvus, and by default his ever loyal brother Cull, being a bit off the script most of the time. 

"You don't have to worry," Corvus told Gamora. "Your father has chosen to spare you, and he wants to be reunited with his daughters. Is there a more wonderful thing than family?" he grinned. 

"How can you say something like that when the family you are referring to just murdered millions, no billions even trillions of living creatures around the galaxy?"

"Father is giving them a chance to start over, he is giving them a chance to try again and get things right without straining their population or their planet. Second chances don't come about easily, they should be grateful for this opportunity that they've received."

Gamora shook her head, Corvus had always emphatically believed Thanos' teachings. Gamora hadn't thought of them much in her youth, she had grown up on them, it was simple to believe. But when she had been presented with another option she was smart enough to change her mind. 

But not Corvus, he had been in agreement as he grew up, eager to get on the front lines and assist with any thinning of a population towards Thanos' cause. She should have known that he was not someone who would empathize with such large scale death. 

Nebula was fully unconscious in Cull's arms, tears running down her blue cheeks. 

"She must have lost someone in the coin flip," Cull said as his brother stared at her. 

"She'll be happier here," he assured Cull. "With family," Cull nodded and both women were led to a shared bedroom where they could rest and stay until the ship reached Garden. 


	19. Bad Ending

**Planet Earth**  
It was impossible to come to terms with.The general feeling among the group was dismay and hopelessness.So many people were gone, so many of them were gone.As they looked around and took stock of one another, it was undeniable.they had lost.They were left searching for friends and loved ones, wandering around the battlefield, going to the same places over and over again, refusing to give up on someone. 

It wasn't just one or two but dozens of them that had been lost to the snap.The ones that remained sat down, cried into their hands or onto someone else.A few managed to find someone they knew, and they broke down together. 

But no one could argue, the general consensus was that they lost, they had failed to protect the world and to protect the ones they loved. 

Steve stared at Natasha.She was wiping her eyes and shaking her head. 

"They said Tony's gone," she whispered. 

Steve looked at her."Have you found Clint?"

"I, I think he's around here somewhere."Her heart sank, things didn't tend to go well for her, but Clint had saved Natasha and was the one to bring her into S.H.I.E.L.D., she had to keep searching.

 **Somewhere in Our Galaxy**  
The tears were streaming down her face, there was no way to stop them.She had stopped trying to.Her heart ached, her body ached, it was worse than the times that she'd given up her own limbs, her own flesh.It was worse than having to learn how to do everything all over again with the metal parts.It was worse than the shame that she'd lived with of losing to Gamora over and over again. 

Losing Tony was the worst thing she'd ever endured, and it was yet to be seen if she'd survive the experience. 

She felt her body shake as she sobbed, she didn't wipe the tears away anymore, it seemed like a waste of time.She knew they would just come back.So she let the tears flow from her eyes down to the pillow and soak it through.There was a wet spot around where her face laid and she couldn't care enough to move.She sniffed, feeling numb. 

She laid facing the large metal door of the room she had been provided on Thanos's ship.She didn't want it.She wanted Tony.She might have given anything if only he could be with her now.She might have sacrificed everyone else, Thanos could have 99% of the world's population if he had just spared Tony, Gamora, and Nebula. 

But he hadn't.Nebula wondered somewhere in the back of her mind if perhaps Thanos had taken Tony on purpose.Maybe he was displeased to see his failure of a daughter so happy, she didn't deserve to be, she knew that better than anyone.But she had wanted to be. 

She closed her eyes, rejecting the reality around her.She held her breath in an attempt to stop her sobbing.She imagined him next to her, for a moment she even convinced herself that she could smell his cologne.She smiled as she inhaled deeply but it released as a sob that wracked her entire body. 

She let out a loud wail and grabbed the pillow closer to herself, wrapping around it and curling into the fetal position on the bed she hadn't bothered to unmake or get comfortable in. 

She cried and cried, Tony had told her the first time that tears were the body's way of letting pain leave.But it didn't feel like this pain would ever stop, she didn't feel like it was leaving her body at all.

"Nebula," she heard a knock and concerned voice from the other side of the door. 

It was perhaps the only voice she liked anymore.It was Gamora, her sister.Her true sister, they were no longer trapped behind the roles that Thanos had thrust each of them into.Instead, they had forged their own bond.Nebula did want to get up and open the door for Gamora, but her body felt like lead.It felt physically impossible for her to even rise from the bed to go and let her sister in, even though she knew that she'd feel so much better as soon as Gamora was inside the room with her. 

I can get up, she told herself in her mind.I can stand up and go open the door. 

She took a deep breath, no, just one thing at a time. 

She sniffed.The first thing she needed to do was put the pillow back. 

She swallowed hard, focusing on her arms, she set the pillow aside behind her and sighed.Ok, she had done it. 

What was next? 

Well she needed to sit up, if she was going to go anywhere she'd have to get out of the fetal position.So she did, she closed her eyes, imagined Tony holding his hand out to her and pushed herself from the mattress.She slowly put her legs on the floor and kept looking up at him.

"Stand for me darling," she heard his voice ask. 

She felt the tears still sliding down her cheeks, she reached for a hand that wasn't there and stood up.She had to open her eyes.He wasn't with her.

"Nebula, please open the door," her sister said, her voice was clearly worried. 

I'm trying, Nebula thought. 

She was standing now.Just, just one step.She could do it.She made her way towards the door, one celebrated step at a time.When she stood in front of it it felt surreal. 

"Gamora?" her voice came out croaked and very unattractive, her throat was dry and she hadn't done anything with her voice except cry, perhaps she should have expected the unattractiveness of it. 

"I'm still here Nebula," she heard her sister's hopeful voice. 

Nebula smiled, it wasn't a full smile, but it was more than she had done since they had been captured on their father's ship.She wondered for a moment, was that even right?He'd never been very caring towards her in the first place, towards either of them really.Did she want him to be her father? 

No, no she didn't. 

She reached up and turned the lock on the door.

"I unlocked it," she scratched out. 

The door opened and Gamora stood in front of her. 

"Oh Nebula," Gamora stepped inside the room and locked the door behind her tightly.Neither sister wanted to see anyone on this ship other than each other, so if they were in the same room, there was no reason to let anyone else inside. 

Gamora took Nebula into her arms instantly. 

Nebula felt the sadness well up inside of her again.She clung onto her sister while Gamora rubbed her back gently, telling her false lies of hope and improvement.

Nebula couldn't imagine things ever getting better.They had lost, and how Gamora and Nebula were trapped on a ship destined for The Garden Planet. 

They would be forced to live out the remainder of their lives beside a man who they hated and who most likely hated them.He would expect their help and their praise and perhaps even their kindness and cooperation.After all The Garden was unsettled, no work had been done on the planet in preparation for the victory, it would all have to be done on landing.Find, let Thanos figure it out on his own.Nebula clutched onto Gamora, if a sister was the only thing she could hold onto anymore, then that's what she'd do.

"I'm here," Gamora patted her back, smiling softly and holding her, trying desperately to get her to feel loved and to help her start healing. 

**Thanos’s Garden Planet**  
The Garden was actually a beautiful planet, which was rather unfortunate considering how much both Gamora and Nebula had already agreed to hate it. 

Thanos had offered, and even expected, the two girls to stay with him, however they had both declined.It had not been aggressive, neither of them had the will to fight anymore, but it had been final. 

Gamora had been the one to realize that Thanos was basically a tame house pet now, he had no intention of fighting, killing or being violent now that his goal was accomplished, in fact, it would go back in the face of everything he had worked so hard for him to turn violent because it would not allow for the balance he had been looking for. 

So the girls were allowed to defy him, much to the anger of the other members of The Black Order who had also come to The Garden with them.But Thanos had made it clear to those members that they were to leave the girls alone. 

"I have my backpack," Gamora said.

"Me as well," Nebula fastened her bag tighter to her body.Inside of the backpacks was seeds and rations, it had everything necessary to begin their own life on the foreign planet. 

"So we both agree," Gamora said as they exited the ship, ignoring Ebony and Cull standing just outside of it. 

"We will walk for three days before deciding on a location," Nebula nodded. 

"Perfect," Gamora agreed. 

The girls did walk, their endless training had put them in incredible shape, they rested only six hours each day and walked the rest of the time.When three days had passed they looked around.

"It's a beautiful area," Gamora smiled. 

"It is, I must admit, I am a bit bitter that this world is so nice."

"It definitely doesn't feel fair," Gamora agreed."But we get to live here too, together," she smiled.

"Yes, I do look forward to that," Nebula smiled at her sister.

"Me too." 

They set to building, gathering materials to make a shelter.Once it had started to take shape Nebula left the rest of the process to Gamora while she began getting the crops together.It took weeks of work to have something that made them feel proud and prepared enough to take a day off, but when they had reached that point they felt a huge sense of accomplishment. 

They sat down in the living space Gamora had crafted for them, leaning on one another, their bodies ached and felt sore from the excessive hard work, but it was still a happy day.

"Hey I have an idea," Gamora said, looking over at her sister. 

"The tone in your voice says work," Nebula mumbled, much more inclined to sleep in. 

"It is work, but I think it'll be work neither of us mind doing."

"You may want to reconsider," Nebula teased and they both laughed. 

"Alright, tell me your idea," Nebula stopped leaning on Gamora to look at her instead. 

"Let's go gather materials and make a gravesite for Tony Stark and Peter Quill."

Nebula felt her heart lurch in her chest with a familiar but healing pain.It did feel like ripping the scab off of an unhealed wound but the pain was manageable. 

"I like that idea a lot," she whispered.

"Great," Gamora took her hand, they gathered their tools and went out to mine some stone.It was harder work than most of what they had already accomplished but, somehow, it felt even better. 

It had gotten incredibly late as they were finishing up the markers, the gravesites not quite done, still bare save for the markers themselves, but they were already working by torchlight and it would be irresponsible to do more than necessary in the poor source of light. 

They both stood as they finished, wiping the dirt from their faces and looking down as the two markers sat side by side. 

Gamora hugged Nebula and Nebula wrapped her arms around her sister in return.

"I miss Tony," Nebula whispered. 

"I miss Peter too," Gamora confirmed. 

She turned and kissed Nebula's cheek."But I have the best sister in the world here with me, and I know together, we can survive."


	20. Good Ending’s Epilogue

**Planet Earth**  
Years Later,

"Maria Jr, sweetie, you know how much I love your sense of fashion but I'm not joking we need to leave in ten minutes and you have to eat breakfast, come on. Pick something so we can go downstairs," Tony said to his daughter. 

"Dad!" he heard a scream from the kitchen.

"I'm coming pumpkin,” Tony said. He hurried into the other room. 

"What's wrong Gamora?" Tony asked.

"I'm Gamora dad," his daughter at the refrigerator said, peeking around it to look at him.

"Sorry sweetheart," he hugged her and kissed the top of her head. "What's the wrong Nebula Jr?"

She pouted at him, her eyes wide and brimming with fake tears he had become all too familiar with while taking care of his favorite girls. 

"Dad, this is not the brand with marshmallows," N.J. said, Tony walked over and looked into her bowl. 

"You appear to be correct, hold on," he said and walked to their pantry. "N.J. I'm looking in here and it doesn't seem to be here, you might have eaten them all sweet one, you'll have to eat those today and we'll stop by the store on the way home from school."

"How am I supposed to have a good first day of 4th grade without my favorite cereal?" N.J. cried.

"N.J.," Tony’s voice was stern. She sighed and cut the crocodile tears and shoved her spoon into the bowl, clanking it loudly at the bottom. 

"You chip it and we're not getting the cereal until Friday," Tony scolded

"Sorry dad," N.J. mumbled. 

"Alright come on Gamora," Tony lifted her into her chair, even at ten years old he was more than capable of lifting his daughter. "Stop looking in the fridge and eat the yogurt and toast that you asked for last night."

"The yogurt flavor doesn't smell good," Gamora said. Gamora was the softest spoken of all of his children, but it didn't mean she wasn't opinionated.

"It smells bad?" Tony set her in her chair and dipped his finger in. "Ew, you're right, it does." He took the container and tossed it into the trash. "One second," he kissed the top of her head.

"Maria," Tony yelled up the stairs. "You have one minute, then I'm picking your outfit."

"No daddy!" Maria screamed down the stairs. 

"Then find something," Tony went back into the kitchen and found a different yogurt. He opened it up and tasted it. "This one is fine Gamora," he set it down.

"She's only taking so long because Jason is in our class again this year," Gamora muttered, dipping her spoon into the yogurt and eating it. It brought a smile to her face and Tony was glad.

"Wait, Jason? As in a boy?" Tony asked.

Gamora nodded. 

N.J. kicked her, "she said not to tell dad."

Gamora shrugged. 

"Not to tell dad, you can't keep secrets from dad though," Tony kissed N.J.'s head and went up the stairs. 

"Ok, ok, ok," Maria said as he knocked on the door. She opened it, wearing jeans and her pajama shirt. "I'm almost ready, I just need you to choose, yellow shirt with flowers on it, or blue shirt with leaves on it?" She held both options up.

"Yellow shirt with flower," Tony said and patted her head. "Now hurry up, I'm going to have to give you a gogurt in the car."

"Sorry daddy," Maria shut the door and changed quickly. 

Tony loaded the car up quickly and hit the '1' button on the dashboard of his car. His daughters were all in the back row of the large SUV that he drove. 

"Good morning Uncle Tony," he heard his niece's voice.

"I wanted to answer the phone," his nephew yelled in the background. 

"Too bad," his niece replied. 

"Be nice to your brother," Tony scolded.

"Sorry Uncle Tony, sorry Peter," Gera apologized.

"I'm about ten minutes away, you kids ready?" Tony asked.

"Yes, we have our backpacks and double checked our supply lists,” Gera said.

"Great job. Love you two, see you soon." 

He hung up the phone and his girls, who had been quiet for the phone call, broke into a chatter of noise in the background. He smiled as he glanced in his rearview mirror and then headed towards his sister-in-law's house. 

Nebula and Gamora both worked at an interspecies communication and galaxy monitoring facility. The closest facility was about an hour's drive away so neither woman was available for the normal comings and goings of school rush in the morning. Gamora's husband kept late night hours for work so Tony had volunteered to take the entire bunch of children to school once they had started going to the same building. It had been a routine for awhile now but each morning was just as crazy as the last. 

He figured the girls would most likely get better with their routines as time went on, considering it was the first day of school after being allowed to keep their father's more natural night hours with him during the summer. 

The girls loved working in Tony's lab with him. They did all kinds of science experiments during the summer with him The projects had ranged from as mundane as the volcano experiment to as complex as building their own lasers and fusing different metals together to begin working on a portal. The portal experiment had fallen to the backlines though when they had received a new codex set to crack from one of their monthly critical thinking surprise boxes. 

"Daddy, do we have time to go to the store?" Gamora asked.

"Not right now sweetheart. But we're stopping by the store after I pick you guys up today. Can it wait until then?" Tony said.

"Which store?" Gamora asked.

"The one next to the ice cream shop so I can give you a treat after you tell me how good you were on your first day of school," Tony clarified.

"Yay," all three of them cheered happily. "Thank you daddy." 

He smiled as he turned into his sister-in-law's neighborhood. She did most of the work, and it wasn't that her job didn't pay well but it wasn't the kind of house Tony had ever lived in. It was small but cozy, the neighborhood was safe and Tony had done some surveillance modifications to help keep an eye on the family, all wired to their own devices of course. There were only two things that wired to something Tony owned and they were two panic devices that alerted him immediately of danger. 

Thankfully there had never been any need for the panic devices. Gamora had lived a very peaceful and easy life, her twins, Peter and Gera, had grown up knowing only a peaceful life. 

The adults had settled into a kind and relaxing routine, it was so much better compared to their old lives. It was more than they could have asked for from the time when they had been fighting against evil. 

Of course Gamora and Nebula still did their parts, helping reach out across the galaxy and ensure that all of it was protected. 

As for Tony, he was on call for the Avengers, he didn't go into active combat anymore but he did monitor situations for them, he alerted them to potential threats and also helped build a weaponry for the newer up and coming Avengers. 

He couldn't have been more proud of Peter who was the current standing leader of the team, the kid had grown up a lot, and even Captain America was proud of the man he was turning into. 

Tony pulled up to Gamora's house and called the phone again.

"We're coming out now Uncle Tony," Peter's little voice said. 

"Want me to go to the door dad?" Maria asked as he hung up.

"Sure, that'd be sweet of you, thanks Maria," Tony said.

Maria crawled over the back seat and ran up the driveway to the door. Once Peter and Gera had exited Maria helped Gera turn the key, then the three of them made their way back towards the car. 

"Did you check their seatbelts?" Tony asked Maria.

"Yup, they're buckled in papa," Maria said.

"Good job, thanks for the assist," Tony said

She grinned and they did a fist bump through the rearview mirror, she dissolved into giggles as he drove towards their school. 

"So Gera and Peter what grade are you guys going into?" Tony asked playfully.

"We're in second grade Uncle Tony," Peter laughed.

"Ya, we just finished the first grade," Gera said.

"That's right. So you know what they're going to ask you right?" Tony said. 

"You know what they're going to ask?" Gera's eyes were wide.

"Yup, I can give you a hint, but only if you promise to use your powers for good instead of evil," Tony said.

Both siblings looked very serious as they promised.

"Ok, good, so today the teacher is going to ask you what your favorite part of summer was, make sure you're ready to answer, alright?" Tony asked.

"Alright," they both said at the same time. 

"You should probably practice, girls you know your teacher is going to ask the same question, start thinking of your answers too," Tony told them.

"Yes dad," all three said. 

"Ok, Peter why don't you go first," Tony prodded.

"Um, ok, my favorite part of summer was planting my garden in the backyard. We planted strawberries and blueberries," Peter said.

"That's a great answer, I think you're really going to impress everyone with that answer. Alright, Gera are you ready?" Tony asked.

"I might need another minute," Gera said, looking worried.

"Alright, no problem, Gamora, how about you?" Tony said.

"My favorite part of summer was spending time in the lab with you daddy. I liked making the robot that folded our clothes," Gamora said.

"I think you liked using that robot more than making it," Tony laughed. "But it's a great answer, very impressive. Gera are you ready?"

"Yes! My favorite part of summer was learning how to make pumpkin bread with my daddy so that we can surprise mama on Halloween and Thanksgiving with pumpkin bread. I'm also going to learn how to make a pumpkin pie soon," Gera replied.

"That's a great answer! Your teacher might even ask you to bring in pie for everyone," Tony smiled at her. "Your uncle might ask you to too," he laughed and so did she. 

"What about you Maria?" Tony asked.

"My favorite part of summer was going with mommy to work at the base for alien interaction communications. We even got to talk with aliens from sector 92," Maria said.

"Wow, very great, could lead to even more interesting questions. Last but not least, what about you N.J.?" Tony asked.

"You guys are all so weird, my favorite part of summer was sleeping in," N.J. said.

Tony smiled, that was his girl. 

When they pulled into the school Tony parked the car instead of just dropping them out front, he couldn't walk them in every day, in fact his girls wouldn't want him to, but on the first day it was mandatory. 

"Alright," Tony said as he arrived at the second grade classroom first. "Get in front of the door and hold this," he handed Gera and Peter the sign and squatted down, getting the perfect angle on his camera. 

The sign read 'First Day, 2nd Grade' and the year. He snapped the picture and wished them good luck, ruffling their hair and taking the sign back from them. 

"Ready girls?" Tony asked, holding the sign out. 

"Let's hurry," Maria said, taking the sign and hurrying in front of the door with her sisters. They smiled widely and Tony took the picture. 

"First day of 4th grade huh?" Tony smiled. "Maria, I need one more hug," he waved her over. 

She hurried over and squeezed him. He stood up and kissed her cheek. "Don't go replacing me with any other boys yet alright?" he said.

"They told you?" Maria pouted.

"No secrets from daddy, you know that," Tony said.

"Sorry," Maria said. "I couldn't replace you daddy," she hugged him. "Don't worry he's not even that cute."

He smiled and set her down. "Be good," Tony said.

"Love you," Maria said and waved and so did her sisters as they lined up in front of the door. 

Tony went back to the car and took out his phone. 

"Did you drop them off?" Nebula said.

"I did," Tony smiled. "It gets harder and harder every year."

"I know, they grow up so fast,” Nebula said.

"You busy saving the world?" Tony said and put the car into drive and headed back towards their house.

"Trying, there are a lot of sporadic readings today, the company is reaching out to a lot of places, but I'm overseeing it all," Nebula said.

"You're doing a great job, it's not easy being a CEO but you're killing it," Tony said.

"Thank you Tony. See you at home tonight?" Nebula asked.

"Of course, stay on the phone with me a little while longer," Tony asked, Nebula laughed but agreed and they talked while he drove. It was a beautiful, calm, new normal. 


End file.
